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I 


CHEONICLES 


■    OF 


THE  FIRST  PLANTERS 


THE  COLONY  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY, 


FROM   1G23  TO   1636. 


KOW   FIRST   COLLECTED   FROM   ORIGIXAL  RECORDS  AND  COXTEMPORAXEOUS 
MAXUSCRIPTS,  AND  ILLUSTRATED   WITH  NOTES. 


By  ALEXANDER  YOUNG. 


Sicut  patribus,  sit  Deus  nobis. 


BOSTON: 

CHARLES   C.  LITTLE   AND   JAMES   BROWN. 


MDCCCXLVr. 


'yf5 


M  3  ?  ~' 


UNIVERSITY 

MASSACHUSE 


MHERSI  Mh 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1846,  by 

Alexander   Young, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


boston: 

riUNTED    BY    FREEMAN    AND    BOLLES, 
DEVONSIIIEE   STHEET. 


TO 

THE    HOXORABLE 

LEMUEL    SHAW,   LL.D. 

CHIEF   JUSTICE    OF   THE   COMMONWEALTH   OF   MASSACHUSETTS, 

THIS  VOLUME 
IS   RESPECTFULLY   INSCRIBED 

BY 

HIS  FRIEND  AND  PASTOR. 


PREFACE 


The  unexpected  favor  with  which  the  publication 
of  the  "  Chronicles  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  the 
Colony  of  Plymouth,"  was  received,  whilst  it  fur- 
nished gratifying  proof  of  a  growing  interest  in  the 
early  annals  of  New-England,  encouraged  the  editor 
to  enter  into  the  collateral  but  broader  field  of  the 
Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  to  gather  up 
here  the  scattered  sheaves  of  a  no  less  abundant 
harvest.  The  present  volume,  it  is  believed,  will  be 
found  to  contain  every  authentic  document  relating 
to  the  planting  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts,  from 
its  first  faint  dawnings  in  1623  to  the  full  sunrise  of 
1636,  with  the  single  exception  of  Winthrop's  His- 
tory, to  which  it  may  be  considered  an  introduction 
or  supplement.  Its  chief  and  peculiar  value,  as  well 
as  that  of  its  predecessor,  consists  in  the  fact  that  it 
imbodies  the  earliest  materials  for  the  History  of  our 
Commonwealth,  written  by  men  who  lived  at  the 
time,  on  the  spot,  and  were  personally  engaged  in 


VI  PREFACE. 

the  transactions  which  they  record.  Such  documents 
can  never  become  obsolete,  can  never  be  superseded 
by  subsequent  narratives,  however  eloquent  or  beau- 
tiful, but  must  always  be  appealed  to  as  the  solid 
groundwork  of  our  history.  In  the  estimation  of  not 
a  few,  the  severe  and  simple  beauty  of  their  Doric 
structure  outvies  the  florid  ornaments  of  more  stately 
and  ambitious  edifices. 

The  numerous  references  in  the  Notes,  though  to 
some  they  may  appear  unnecessary,  will  enable  the 
reader  to  verify  my  statements,  and  will  point  him  to 
the  sources  of  additional  information.  The  former 
volume  of  Chronicles  is  included  among  the  works 
referred  to,  to  save  the  necessity  of  repeating  what 
has  already  been  said. 

No  nation  or  state  has  a  nobler  origin  or  lineage 
than  Massachusetts.  My  reverence  for  the  character 
of  its  founders  constantly  rises  with  the  closer  study 
of  their  lives,  and  a  clearer  insight  into  their  prin- 
ciples and  motives.  Much  as  has  been  said  in  com- 
mendation of  them,  their  worth  has  never  been  over- 
rated, and  we  should  never  be  tired  of  recounting 
their  virtues.  ''Vestra  autem  pietas,  viri  exules, 
quae  maluit  patriam  quam  Evangelium  deserere,  com- 
modisque  carere  temporariis  quam  permisceri  sacris  a 
Christo  alienis,  egregiam  sane  meretur  laudem." 

ALEXANDER  YOUNG. 

Boston,  June  1,  1846. 


CONTENTS. 


•-'hap-  Page. 

I.  John  White's  Brief  Relation  of  the  Occasion  of 

Planting  of  this  Colony     .             .             .             .  i 

n.  William    Hubbard's   Narrative   of    the    Discovery 

AND  first  Planting  of  the  Massachusetts  17 

III.  The  Original  Records  of   the   Governor   and  Com- 

pany of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  New-England  37 

IV.  Governor   Cradock's  Letter  to  Captain   John   En- 

dicott         ......  129 

V.  The   Company's  First  General  Letter  of  Instruc- 
tions TO  Endicott  and  his  Council       .            .  l-ll 

VI.  The  Company's  Second  General  Letter  of  Instruc- 
tions to  Endicott  and  his  Council        .             .  172 

VII.  The  Form  of  Government  for  the  Colony            .  192 

Vin.  The  Allotment  of  the  Lands         .             .             ,  197. 

IX.  Oaths  of  Office  for  the  Governor  and  Council  201 

X.  The  Company's  Agreement  with  the  Ministers  205 

XI.  Fr.*ncis  Higginson's  Journal  of  his  Voyage         .  213 

XII.  Francis  Higginson's  New-England's  Plantation  239 

Xin.  General  Considerations  for  Planting  New-England  269 

XIV.  The  Agreement  at  Cambridge         .             .             .  279 

X\ .  The  Co.mpany's  Letters  to  Higginson  and  Endicott  285 


Vlil  CONTENTS. 

Chap.  P'^'e. 

XVI.  The  Governor   and  Company's  Humble   Request   to 

THEIR  Brethren  in  and  of  the  Church  of  England  293 

XVII.  Deputy  Governor  Dudley's  Letter  to  the  Countess 

OF  Lincoln              .....  301 

XVni.  Captain  Roger  Clap's  Memoirs       .            .            .  343 

XIX.  The  Early  Records  of  Charlestow^n        .             .  369 

XX.  William  Wood's  Description  of  Massachusetts  389 

XXI.  John  Cotton's  Life  and  Letters                .             .  417 

Samuel  Whiting's  Life  of  John  Cotton               .  419 

Cotton's  Letter  to  his  Wife        .             .             .  432 

Cotton's  Letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln         .  434 

Cotton's  Reasons  for  his  Removal  to  New-England     438 

XXII.  Richard  Mather's  Journal              .             .             .  445 

XXIII.  Anthony  Thacher's  Narrative  of  his  Shipwreck  483 

XXIV.  Thomas  Shepard's  Memoir  of  his  own  Life         .  497 


WHITE'S  BRIEF  RELATION. 


The  Planters  Plea.  Or  the  Grovnds  of  Plantations  Examined, 
and  vsuall  Objections  answered.  Together  with  a  manifesta- 
tion of  the  causes  mooving  such  as  have  lately  vndertaken  a 
Plantation  in  New-England  :  For  the  satisfaction  of  those  that 
question  the  lawfulnesse  of  the  Action.  2  Thess.  v.  21.  Prove 
all  things,  and  holdefast  that  which  is  good.  London.  Print- 
ed hy  William  Zones.     1630.     sm.  4to.  pp.  88. 


CHAPTER   I. 

A    BRIEF    RELATION    OF    THE     OCCASION    OF    PLANTING 
OF    THIS    COLONY. 

The  ensuing  faithful  and  unpartial  narration  of  the  chap. 
first  occasions,  beginning,  and  progress  of  the  whole  — !^ 
work,  is  laid  before  the  eyes  of  all  that  desire  to  re- 
ceive satisfaction,  by  such  as  have  been  privy  to  the 
very  first  conceiving  and  contriving  of  this  project  of 
planting  this  Colony,^  and  to  the  several  passages 
that  have  happened  since  ;  who  also,  in  that  they 
relate,  consider  they  have  the  searcher  of  all  hearts 
and  observer  of  all  men's  ways  witness  of  the  truth 
and  falsehood  that  they  deliver. 

About  ten  years  since,   a    company  of  English,  i6  20. 
part  out  of  the  Low  Countries,  and  some  out  of  Lon- 
don and  other  parts,  associating  themselves  into  one 
body,  with  an  intention  to  plant  in  Virginia,  in  their 

passage  thither  being  taken  short  by  the  wind,  in  the  ^nv. 

depth  of  winter,  the  whole  ground  being  under  snow,  ^• 

were  forced  with  their  provisions  to  land  themselves  style. 

^  This  fact  gives  to  the  Xarrative  the  sanction  of  the  liighest  authority. 


4  THE    SETTLEIMENT    AT    PLYMOUTH. 

CHAP,  in  New-England,  upon  a  small  bay  beyond  Matta- 
chusets,'  in  the  place  which  they  now  inhabit,  and 
call  by  the  name  of  New  Plymouth.^  The  ground 
being  covered  a  foot  thick  with  snow,  and  they  being 
without  shelter,  and  having  amongst  them  divers 
w^omen  and  children,  no  marvel  if  they  lost  some^  of 
their  company ;  it  may  be  wondered  how  they  saved 
the  rest.  But  notwithstanding  this  sharp  encounter 
at  the  first,  and  some  miscarriages  afterward,  yet, 
conceiving  God's  providence  had  directed  them  unto 
that  place,  and  finding  great  charge  and  difficulty  in 
removing,  they  resolved  to  fix  themselves  there ;  and 
being  assisted  by  some  of  their  friends  in  London,^ 
having  passed  over  most  of  the  greatest  difliculties 
that  usually  encounter  new  planters,  they  began  to 
subsist  at  length  in  a  reasonably  comfortable  man- 
ner ;  being,  notwithstanding,  men  but  of  mean  and 
weak  estates  of  themselves  ;^  and  after  a  year's  expe- 
rience or  two  of  the  soil  and  inhabitants,  sent  home 
tidings  of  both,  and  of  their  well-being  there,  which 


'  It  seems  to  us  somewhat  strange  by  the  editor  of  this  volume,  p.  101, 

to  speak  of  Plymouth  as  on  a  "small  note  *. 

bay  beyond   Massachusetts."     But  *  Before  the  first  of  April,  that 

for  some  time  after  the  first  settle-  is,  in  less  than  four  months,  forty- 

ment  of  the  country,  the  name  Mas-  four   of  the   hundred  persons  who 

sachusetts  was  usually  confined  to  constituted  the  company,  died.    See 

the  territory  lying  around    Boston  (.'hronicles  of  Plymouth,  p.  198. 

harbour,  from  Nahant  to  Point  Al-  ■*  Some  of  these  friends  in  London 

derton.      See  Savage's   Winlhrop,  were  also  interested  in  the   Massa- 

i.  27,  121.  chusetts  Company  ;    such  as  John 

*  We  find  here  no  allusion  what-  White,     Thomas    Goffe,     Samuel 

ever  to  the  alleged  treachery  of  the  Sharpe,  .John  Revell,  and  John  Po- 

captain   of  the   Mayflower,  who   is  cock.     See  the  Collections  of  the 

said  by  Morton  in  his  New-England's  Massachusetts    Historical    Society, 

Memorial,  p.  34,  to  have  been  bril)-  iii.  48. 

ed  by  the  Dutch  to  carry  that  vessel  ^  With  the  exception  of  Winslow 

north  of  their  plantation  on   Hud-  and   Standish,   the   first  settlers  of 

son's  river.     See  this  charge  exam-  IMymouth  Colony  were,  in  point  of 

ined  in  the  Chronicles  of  the  Pilgrim  family  and   property,  much  inferior 

Fathers  of  the  Colony  of  Plymouth,  to  those  of  Massachusetts. 


ORIGIN    OF    THIS    COLONY.  O 

occasioned  other  men  to  take  knowledge  of  the  place,  chap. 
and  to  take  it  into  consideration/  - — ■ — - 

About  the  year  1623,  some  western  merchants,  i623. 
who  had  continued  a  trade  of  fishing  for  cod  and  bar- 
tering for  furs  in  those  parts  for  divers  years  before,^ 
conceiving  that  a  Colony  planted  on  the  coast  might 
further  them  in  those  employments,  bethought  them- 
selves how  they  might  bring  that  project  to  effect, 
and  communicated  their  purpose  to  others,  alleging 
the  conveniency  of  compassing  their  project  with  a 
small  charge,  by  the  opportunity  of  their  fishing 
trade,  in  which  they  accustomed  to  double-man 
their  ships,  that,  by  the  help  of  many  hands,  they 
might  despatch  their  voyage  and  lade  their  ship 
with  fish  while  the  fishing  season  lasted ;  which 
could  not  be  done  with  a  bare  sailing  company. 
Now  it  was  conceived  that,  the  fishing  being  ended, 
the  spare  men  that  were  above  their  necessary  sail- 
ors, might  be  left  behind  with  provisions  for  a  year  ; 
and  when  that  ship  returned  the  next  year,  they 
might  assist  them  in  fishing,  as  they  had  done  the 
former  year  ;  and,  in  the  mean  time,  might  employ 
themselves  in  building,  and  planting  corn,  which, 
with  the  provisions  offish,  fowl  and  venison,  that  the 
land  yielded,  would  afford  them  the  chief  of  their 
food.     This  proposition  of  theirs  took  so  well,  that 


1  The  publication  in  London,  in         ^  In  the  year  1620  there  went  six 

1622,   of  Bradford  and  AYinslow"s  or  seven   ships    from  the    west    of 

Journal,  and  in  1624,  of  Winslow's  England  to  fish  on  the  northeastern 

Good  News  from  New-England,  un-  coasts   of  New-England  ;    in  1621, 

doul)tedly  did  much  to  draw  the  at-  ten  or  twelve  ;  in  1622,    thirty-five  ; 

tention  of  the  people  of  England  to  in  1623,  about    forty  ;  and  in  1624, 

the  subject  of  colonizing  the  north-  about  fifty.     See   Prince's  Annals, 

ern  part  of  this  continent.     See  both  pp.   157,185,201,  210,224,   (8vo. 

of  these  documents  in  the  Chronicles  ed.  Boston,  1826.) 
of  Plymouth,  pp.  109  and  269. 


b  DESIGN    OF    THE    PLANTATION. 

CHAP,  it  drew  on  divers  persons  to  join  with  them  in  this 

project  ;   the   rather  because  it  was  conceived   that 

1623.  j^Qj.  Qj^i^  their  own  fishermen,  but  the  rest  of  our 
nation  that  went  thither  on  the  same  errand,  might 
be  much  advantaged,  not  onlybyfi^esh  victual,  which 
that  Colony  might  spare  them  in  time,  but  withal, 
and  more,  by  the  benefit  of  their  ministers'  labors, 
which  they  might  enjoy  during  the  fishing  season  ; 
whereas  otherwise,  being  usually  upon  those  voyages 
nine  or  ten  months  in  the  year,  they  were  left  all 
the  while  without  any  means  of  instruction  at  all.^ 
Compassion  towards  the  fishermen,  and  partly  some 
expectation  of  gain,  prevailed  so  far  that  for  the 
planting  of  a  Colony  in  New-England  there  was 
raised  a  stock  of  more  than  £3000,  intended  to  be 
paid  in  in  five  years,  but  afterwards  disbursed  in  a 
shorter  time. 

How  this  stock  was  employed,  and  by  what  errors 
and  oversights  it  was  wasted,  is,  I  confess,  not  much 
pertinent  to  this  subject  in  hand.  Notwithstanding, 
because  the  knowledge  thereof  may  be  of  use  for 
other  men's  direction,  let  me  crave  leave,  in  a  short 
digression,   to  present   unto  the  reader's  view  the 

'  "  There  were  more  than  a  few  been    very  fine   settlements    in   the 

attempts  of  the   English  to  people  northeast  regions  ;  but  Avhat  is  be- 

and  improve  the  parts  of  New-Eng-  come  of  them  ?    I  have  heard  that 

land  which  were  to  the  northward  one  of  our  ministers,  once  preaching 

of  New  Plymouth.     But  the  designs  to  a  congregation  there,  urged  them 

of  those   attempts   being  aimed  no  to  approve  themselves   a   religious 

higher    than    the   advancement    of  people  from  this  consideration,  that 

some  worldly  interests,  a   constant  otherwise  they  would  contradict  the 

series   of  disasters  has  confounded  main  end  of  planting  this  wilderness, 

them,  until  there  was  a  plantation  Whereupon  a  well-known   person, 

erected  upon  the  nobler  designs  of  then   in   the    assembly,   cried    out, 

Christianity.     And  that  plantation,  '  8ir,  you  are  mistaken.     You  think 

though  it  has  had  more  adversaries  you  are  preaching  to  the  peoj)le  at 

than    perhaps  any  one   upon   earth,  the    Bay.     Our   main    end    was    to 

yet,  having  obtained  help  from  God,  catch  fish.'"     Mather's  Magnalia, 

it  continues  to  this  day.    There  have  i.  61,  (Hartford  ed.  1820.) 


FOURTEEN   MEN   AT    CAPE    ANN.  / 

whole  order  of  the  managing  of  such  moneys  as  were  chap. 

collected,  with  the  success  and  issue  of  the  business 

undertaken.  ^^^^• 


The  first  employment,  then,  of  this  new  raised 
stock  was  in  buying  a  small  ship  of  fifty  tons,  which 
was,  with  as  much  speed  as  might  be,  despatched 
towards  New  England  upon  a  fishing  voyage  ;  the 
charge  of  which  ship,  with  a  new  suit  of  sails,  and 
other  provisions  to  furnish  her,  amounted  to  more 
than  o£300.  Now  by  reason  the  voyage  was  under- 
taken too  late,  she  came  at  least  a  month  or  six 
weeks  later  than  the  rest  of  the  fishing  ships  that 
went  for  that  coast ;  and  by  that  means  wanting  fish 
to  make  up  her  lading,  the  master  thought  good  to 
pass  into  Mattachusets  Bay,^  to  try  whether  that 
would  yield  him  any ;  which  he  performed,  and 
speeding  there  better  than  he  had  reason  to  expect, 
having  left  his  spare  men  behind  him  in  the  country 
at  Cape  An'ne,  he  returned  to  a  late  and  consequently 
a  bad  market  in  Spain,  and  so  home.  The  charge  of 
this  voyage,  with  provision  for  fourteen  spare  men 
left  in  the  country,  amounted  to  above  <£800,  with 
the  <£300  expended  upon  the  ship,  mentioned  before. 
And  the  whole  provenue,  besides  the  ship,  which 
remained  to  us^  still,  amounted  not  to  above  <£200. 
So  the  expense,  above  the  return  of  that  voyage, 
came  to  .£600,  and  upwards. 

The  next  year  was  brought  to  the  former  ship  a  i624. 
Flemish  fly-boat,^  of  about  a  hundred  and  forty  tons ; 


'  See  note  ^  on  page  4.  paper,  White,  was  one  of  the  ad- 

^  From    this    expression,    us,    it     venturers, 
would  seem  that  the  author  of  this        '  The  Half-Moon,  in  which  Henry 


8  TWO    FISHING-VESSELS    EMPLOYED. 

CHAP,  which  being  unfit  for  a  fishing  voyage,  as  being  built 
■ — '■ —  merely  for  burthen,  and  wanting  lodging  for  the 
1624.  men  which  she  needed  for  such  an  employment,  they 
added  unto  her  another  deck,  (which  seldom  proves 
well  with  Flemish  buildings,)  by  which  means  she 
was  carved  so  high  that  she  proved  walt,^  and  una- 
ble to  bear  any  sail ;  so  that  before  she  could  pass 
on  upon  her  voyage,  they  were  fain  to  shift  her  first, 
and  put  her  upon  a  better  trim,  and  afterwards,  that 
proving  to  little  purpose,  to  unlade  her,  and  take 
her  up  and  fur  her.  Which  notwithstanding  it  were 
performed  with  as  much  speed  as  might  be,  yet  the 
year  was  above  a  month  too  far  spent  before  she 
could  despatch  to  set  to  sea  again.  And  when  she 
arrived  in  the  country,  being  directed  by  the  master 
of  the  smaller  ship,  upon  the  success  of  his  former 
year's  voyage,  to  fish  at  Cape  Anne,  not  far  from 
Mattachusets  Bay,^  sped  very  ill,  as  did  also  the 
smaller  ship  that  led  her  thither,  and  found  little 
fish  ;  so  that  the  greater  ship  returned  with  little 
more  than  a  third  part  of  her  lading,  and  came  back 
(contrary  to  her  order,  by  which  she  was  consigned 
"  to  Bourdeaux,)  directly  for  England ;  so  that  the  Com- 
pany of  Adventurers  was  put  to  a  new  charge  to  hire 
a  small  ship  to  carry  that  little  quantity  of  fish  she 
brought  home  to  market. 

The  charge  of  this  voyage,  with  both  the  ships, 

Hudson  discovered   the  noble  river  tcalt,  when  she  has  not  her  due  bal- 

now  called  by  his  name,  and  explor-  last,  that  is,  not  enough  to  enable 

ed  it  above  Albany,  was  a  fly-boat  her  to  bear  her  sails  or  keep  her 

or  yacht  of  eighty  tons.     See  Moul-  stiff'.     Hubbard,   in  his  History  of 

ton's  History  of  the  State  of  New  New  England,  p.  322,  speaking  of 

York,  pp.  202,  245,  and  Brodhead's  Lamberton's  ill-fated  ship,  says  that 

.      Address  before  the  New  York  Hist,  she  "was  ill   built,  very  walt-sid- 

Society,  p.  14.  ed." 

>  Walt,  crank.     A  ship  is  said  to  "  See  note  '  on  page  4. 


THIRTY-TWO    MEN    AT    CAPE    ANN.  if 

amounted  to  about  £2200 ;  whereof  i)800   and  up-  chap. 

w^ard  must  be  accounted  for  the  building  and  other  

charges  about  the  greater  ship.  By  these  two  ships  I624. 
were  left  behind  in  the  country  about  thirty-two 
men,  the  charges  of  whose  wages  and  provision 
amounted  to  at  the  least  <£500  of  the  sum  formerly 
mentioned.  The  provenue  of  both  the  voyages  that 
year  exceeded  not  the  sum  of  .£500,  at  the  most. 

The  third  year,  1625,  both  ships,  with  a  small  I625. 
vessel  ,of  forty  tons,  which  carried  kine^  with  other 
provisions,  were  again  set  to  sea  upon  the  same 
voyage,  with  the  charge  of  £2000,  of  which  sum  the 
Company  borrowed  and  became  indebted  for  £1000, 
and  upwards.  The  great  ship,  being  commanded  by 
a  very  able  master,  having  passed  on  about  two 
hundred  leagues  in  her  voyage,  found  herself  so 
leaky  by  the  carpenter's  fault,  (that  looked  not  well 
to  her  calking,)  that  she  bare  up  the  helm  and  re- 
turned for  Weymouth,  and  having  unladen  her  pro- 
visions and  mended  her  leak,  set  herself  to  sea  again, 
resolving  to  take  advice  of  the  wind  Avhether  to  pass 
on  her  former  voyage,  or  to  turn  into  Newfoundland ; 
which  she  did,  by  reason  that  the  time  was  so  far 
spent  that  the  master  and  company  despaired  of  do- 
ing any  good  in  New-England,  where  the  fish  falls 
in  two  or  three  months  sooner  than  at  Newfoundland. 
There  she  took  fish,  good  store,  and  much  more  than 
she  could  lade  home.  The  overplus  should  have 
been  sold  and  delivered  to  some  sacke  or  other  sent 
to  take  it  in  there,  if  the  voyage  had  been  well  man- 


'  The  first  cattle,  a  bull  and  three     low.     See  Prince's  Annals,  p.  225. 
heifers,  were  brought  to  Plj-mouth     (8vo.  ed.  Boston,  1826.) 
in  March,  1624,  by  Edward  Wins- 


10  ILL    SUCCESS    OF    THE    ENTERPRISE. 

CHAP,  aged.     But  that  could  not  be  done,  by  reason  that 

the   ship,  before  she  went,  was  not  certain  where  to 

^^^^-  make  her  fish.  By  this  accident  it  fell  out  that  a 
good  quantity  of  the  fish  she  took  was  cast  away,  and 
some  other  part  was  brought  home  in  another  ship. 
At  the  return  of  the  ships  that  year,  fish,  by  rea- 
son of  our  wars  with  Spain,  falling  to  a  very  low 
rate,  the  Company  endeavoured  to  send  the  greater 
ship  for  France.  But  she  being  taken  short  with  a 
contrary  wind,  in  the  west  country,  and  intelligence 
given  in  the  mean  time  that  those  markets  were 
overlaid,  they  were  enforced  to  bring  her  back 
again,  and  to  sell  her  fish  at  home  as  they  might. 
Which  they  did,  and  with  it  the  fish  of  the  smaller 
ship,  the  New-England  fish  about  ten  shillings  the 
hundred  by  tale,  or  thereabout,  the  Newfoundland 
fish  at  six  shillings  four  pence  the  hundred  ;  of  which 
was  well  nigh  eight  pence  the  hundred  charge  raised 
upon  it  after  the  ship's  return.  By  this  reason  the 
fish,  which  at  a  market  in  all  likelihood  might  have 
yielded  well  nigh  £2000,  amounted  not,  with  all  the 
provenue  of  the  voyage,  to  above  £1100. 

Unto  these  losses  by  fishing,  were  added  two 
other  no  small  disadvantages  ;  the  one  in  the  coun- 
try by  our  land-men,  who  being  ill  chosen  and  ill 
commanded,  fell  into  many  disorders,  and  did  the 
Company  little  service  ;  the  other  by  the  fall  of  the 
price  of  shipping,  which  was  now  abated  to  more 
than  the  one  half ;  by  which  means  it  came  to  pass, 
that  our  ships,  which  stood  us  in  little  less  than 
£1200,  were  sold  for  £480. 

The  occasions  and  means  then  of  wasting  this  stock 
are  apparently  these:  first,  the  ill  choice  of  the  place 


ABANDONMENT  OF  THE  ENTERPRISE.  11 

for  fishing.     The  next,  the  ill  carriage  of  our  men  at  chap, 
land,  who  having  stood  us  in  two  years  and  a  half  in  — — 
w^ell  nigh  £1000  charge,  never  yielded  XlOO  profit. 
The  last,  the  ill  sales  of  fish   and  shipping.     By  all 
which  the  Adventurers  were  so  far  discouraged,  that 
they  abandoned  the  further  prosecution  of  this  de-  i626. 
sign,  and  took  order  for  the   dissolving   of  the   com- 
pany on  land,  and  sold  away  their  shipping  and  other 
provisions. 

Two  things  withal  may  be  intimated  by  the  way  ; 
the  first,  that  the  very  project  itself  of  planting  by 
the  help  of  a  fishing  voyage,  can  never  answer  the 
success  that  it  seems  to  promise  ;  which  experienced 
fishermen  easily  have  foreseen  beforehand,  and  by  that 
means  have  prevented  divers  ensuing  errors.  Where- 
of, amongst  divers  other  reasons,  these  may  serve  for 
two ;  first,  that  no  sure  fishing-place  in  the  land  is 
fit  for  planting,  nor  any  good  place  for  planting  found 
fit  for  fishing,  at  least  near  the  shore ;  and,  secondly, 
rarely  any  fishermen  will  work  at  land,  neither  are 
husbandmen  fit  for  fishermen  but  wath  long  use  and 
experience.  The  second  thing  to  be  observed  is, 
that  nothing  new  fell  out  in  the  managing  of  this 
stock,  seeing  experience  hath  taught  us  that,  as  in 
building  houses,  the  first  stones  of  the  foundation  are 
buried  under  ground  and  are  not  seen,  so  in  planting 
colonies,  the  first  stocks  employed  that  way  are  con- 
sumed, although  they  serve  for  a  foundation  to  the 
work. 

But  to  return  to  our  former  subject,  from  which 
we  digressed.  Upon  the  manifestation  of  the  West- 
ern Adventurers'  resolution  to  give  off  their  work, 


12  SETTLEMENT    AT    NAHUMKEIK. 

CHAP,  most  part  of  the  land-men,  being  sent  for,  returned. 
But  a  few  of  the  most  honest  and  industrious  resolved 

1626.  ^Q  gi^g^y  behind,  and  to  take  charge  of  the  cattle  sent 
over  the  year  before  ;  which  they  performed  accord- 
ingly. And  not  liking  their  seat  at  Cape  Anne, 
chosen  especially  for  the  supposed  commodity  of  fish- 
ing, they  transported  themselves  to  Nahum-Keike,^ 
about  four  or  five  leagues  distant  to  the  south-west 
from  Cape  Anne. 

Some  then  of  the  Adventurers,  that  still  continued 
their  desire  to  set  forward  the  plantation  of  a  Colony 
there,  conceiving  that  if  some  more  cattle  were  sent 
over  to  those  few  men  left  behind,  they  might  not 
only  be  a  means  of  the  comfortable  subsisting  of  such 
as  were  already  in  the  country,  but  of  inviting  some 
other  of  their  friends  and  acquaintance  to  come  over 
to  them,  adventured  to  send  over  twelve  kine  and 
bulls  more  ;  and  conferring  casually  with  some  gen- 
tlemen of  London,^  moved  them  to  add  unto  them  as 
many  more.     By  w^hich  occasion,  the  business  came 

1627.  to  agitation  afresh  in  London,  and  being  at  first  ap- 
proved by  some  and  disliked  by  others,  by  argument 

'  The  author,  White,  in  another  haven  of  comfort,  but  happened  also 
part  of  his  work,  after  referring  to  to  put  a  Hebrew  name  upon  it ;  for 
the  opinion  held  by  some  that  the  they  called  it  Salem,  for  the  peace 
Indians  might  formerly  have  had  which  they  had  and  hoped  in  it  ;  and 
some  intercourse  with  the  Jews,  ob-  so  it  is  called  unto  this  day."  Ma- 
serves,  "  Howsoever  it  be,  it  falls  ther  probably  derived  this  whimsical 
out  that  the  name  of  the  place  which  etymology  from  Scottow,  who  says, 
our  late  Colony  hath  chosen  for  their  "  Its  original  name  was  called  Nauin- 
seat,  proves  to  be  perfect  Hebrew,  ArA-,  the  Bosom  of  Consolation,  being 
being  called  Nahum  Keike,  by  inter-  its  signification,  as  the  learned  have 
pretation.  The  Bosom  of  Consola-  observed."  See  Planter's  Plea,  p. 
tion.''''  Cotton  Mather  also  says,  14,  Mather's  Magnalia,  i.  63,  and 
"Of  which  place  I  have  somewhere  Joshua  Scottow's  Narrative  of  the 
met  with  an  odd  observation,  that  Planting  of  the  Massachusetts  Colo- 
the  name  of  it  was  rather  Hebrew  ny,  p.  51,  (Boston,  1694.) 
than  Indian  ;  for  Nahum  signifies  *  Their  names  will  appear  here- 
C'omfort,  and  Kcik  signifies  a  Haven ;  after  in  the  records  of  the  Com- 
and  our  English  not  only  found  it  a  i)any. 


THE    EMIGRATION    WITH    ENDICOTT.  13 

and  disputation  it  grew  to  be  more  vulgar  ;  insomuch  chap. 
that  some  men  showing  some  good  affection  to  the  — ~ 
work,  and  offering  the  help  of  their  purses  if  fit  men  i^-~- 
might  be  procured  to  go  over,  inquiry  w^as  made 
whether  any  would  be  willing  to  engage  their  per- 
sons in  the  voyage.     By  this   inquiry  it  fell   out  that 
among  others  they  lighted  at  last  on  Master  Exde- 
coTT,^  a  man  w^ell  known  to  divers  persons  of  good 
note,  who  manifested  much  willingness  to  accept  of 
the  offer  as  soon  as  it  was  tendered  ;  which  gave 
great  encouragement  to  such  as  were  upon  the  point 
of  resolution  to  set   on  this  work  of  erecting  a  new 
Colony  upon  the   old  foundation.     Hereupon  divers 
persons  having  subscribed  for  the  raising  of  a  reason- 
able sum  of  money,  a  patent  was  granted  with  large 
encouragements   every  way  by  his   most    excellent 
Majesty.-    Master  Endecott  was  sent  over  Governor,  less. 
assisted  with  a  few  men,  and  arriving  in  safety  there     ^o^ 
in  September,  1628,^   and  uniting  his  own  men  W'ith   g   ^ 
those  which  were  formerly  planted  in   the  country 
into  one  body,   they  made  up  in  all  not  much  above 
fifty  or  sixty"*  persons. 

'  "  A  fit  instrument  to  begin  this  furthered  by  the  honored  Mr.  Rich- 
wilderness-work,  of  courage  bokl,  ard  Bellingham."  A  previous  pa- 
undaunted,  yet  sociable,  and  of  a  tent  had  been  obtained  from  the 
cheerful  spirit,  loving  and  austere.  Council  for  New  England,  March 
applying  himself  to  either,  as  occa-  19,  1628.  It  was  under  this  that 
sion  served."'  Edward  Johnson's  Endicott  came  out,  and  not  under 
Wonderworking  Providence,  ch.  ix.  the  broad  seal  of  England,  as  eiTo- 
(London,  1654.)  neously   stated   by   Gov.   Bradford, 

*  ''  Deputy  governor  Dudley,  Mr.  Secretary  ]\Iorton,  and  Edward  John- 
Hubbard,  and  others,  wrongly  place  son.  See  Prince's  Annals,  pp.  249, 
Mr.  Endicott's  voyage  after  the  2.50,  254  ;  INIass.  Hist.  Coll.  xii.  63; 
grant  of  the  royal  charter,  whereas  andMorton's  New-England's  Memo- 
he  came  above  eight  months  be-  rial,  p.  137,  (Davis's  edition,  Bos- 
fore."     The  patent  of  the    Massa-  ton,  1826.) 

chusetts  Company  was  confirmed  by  ^  This   was  the  first  emigration 

the  king,  Charles  I.  ]\Iarch  4,  1629.  under  the  authority  of  the  Massa- 

Edward  Johnson  says  it  was  "  pro-  chusetts  Company, 

cured  by  advice  of  one  Mr.  White,  ■•  It  will  be  seen  from  Higginson's 

an  honest  counsellor-at-law,  as  also  Narrative,  in  a  subsequent  part  of 


G. 


14  THE    EMIGRATION    WITH    HIGGINSON. 

His  prosperous  journey,  and  safe  arrival  of  himself 
and  all  his  company,  and  good  report  which  he  sent 

10  28.  back  of  the  country,  gave  such  encouragement  to  the 
work,  that  more  adventurers  joining  with  the  first 
undertakers,  and  all  engaging  themselves  more  deeply 
for  the  prosecution  of  the  design,  they  sent  over  the 

1629.  next  year  about  three  hundred  persons  more,^  most 
servants,  with  a  convenient  proportion  of  rother- 
beasts,^  to  the  number  of  sixty  or  seventy,  or  there- 
about, and  some  mares  and  horses  ;  of  which  the  kine 
came  safe  for  the  most  part,  but  the  greater  part  of 
the  horses  died,  so  that  there  remained  not  above 
twelve  or  fourteen  alive. 

By  this  time  the  often  agitation  of  this  affair  in 
sundry  parts  of  the  kingdom,  the  good  report  of  Cap- 
tain Endecott's  government,  and  the  increase  of  the 
Colony,  began  to  awaken  the  spirits  of  some  persons 
of  competent  estates,^  not  formerly  engaged.  Con- 
sidering that  they  lived  either  without  any  useful 
employment  at  home,  and  might  be  more  serviceable 
in  assisting  the  planting  of  a  Colony  in  New-England, 
[they]  took  at  last  a  resolution  to  unite  themselves 
for  the  prosecution  of  that  work.  And,  as  it  usually 
falls  out,  some  other  of  their  acquaintance,  seeing 
such  men  of  good  estates^  engaged  in  the  voyage, 

this  volume,   that  on  his  arrival  at  try  Words,  p.  51,  and  Richardson's 

Salem  in  June,  1629,  he  found  there  Eng-.  Diet,  under  Fouf. 
about  a  hundred  persons  with  Endi-         ^  Winthrop,   Isaac  Johnson,   Sal- 

cott.  tonstall,  Dudley,  Cradock,  the  Vas- 

'  This  was  the  second/ emigration,  sals,  and  most  of  the  Massachusetts 

under  lligginson.     He  says,   "  We  Company,  were  men  of  "  good  "  and 

brought  with  us  about  two  hundred  "competent    estates."      Winthrop 

passengers  and  planters  more."  had  an  estate  of  six  or  seven  hun- 

^  Cows,  oxen.     "  The  old  Saxon  dred  pounds  a  year,  and  Johnson's 

word  hrxttan  signifies  to  snort,  snore,  interest  in  the  New-England  adven- 

or   rout   in   sleeping.     To   rowt  or  ture  was  six  hundred  pounds.     See 

rawt  is  to  low  like  an  ox   or  cow.  Hutchinson's  History  of  the  Colony 

Hence  also  the  Saxon  hruther,  bos,  a  of  Massachusetts   Bay,   i.    14,    16. 

rother-beast."     Ray's  North  Coun-  (London,  1760.) 


THE    EMIGRATION    WITH    WINTHROP.  15 

some  for  love  to  their  persons,  and  others  upon  other  chap. 
respects,  united  unto  them  ;  which  together  made  up  — ^— - 
a  competent  number,  (perhaps  far  less  than  is  re-  i^so. 
ported,)  and  embarked  themselves  for  a  voyage  to  ^pj^^ 
New-England,  where  I  hope  they  are  long  since 
safely  arrived.^ 

This  is  an  unpartial  though  brief  relation  of  the 
occasion  of  planting  of  this  Colony.  The  particulars 
whereof,  if  they  could  be  entertained,  w^ere  clear 
enough  to  any  indifferent  judgment,  that  the  suspi- 
cious and  scandalous  reports  raised  upon  these  gen- 
tlemen and  their  friends,  (as  if,  under  the  color  of 
planting  a  Colony,  they  intended  to  raise  and  erect  a 
seminary  of  faction  and  separation,)  are  nothing  else 
but  the  fruits  of  jealousy  of  some  distempered  mind, 
or,  which  is  worse,  perhaps,  savor  of  a  desperate 
malicious  plot  of  men  ill  affected  to  religion,  endeav- 
ouring, by  casting  the  undertakers  into  the  jealousy 
of  State,  to  shut  them  out  of  those  advantages  which 
otherwise  they  do  and  might  expect  from  the  counte- 
nance of  authority.  Such  men  would  be  intreated  to 
forbear  that  base  and  unchristian  course  of  traducing 
innocent  persons  under  these  odious  names  of  Separa- 
tists^ and  enemies  to  the  Church  and  State,  for  fear 
lest  their  own  tongues  fall  upon  themselves  by  the 
justice  of  His  hand  who  will  not  fail  to  clear  the  in- 
nocency  of  the  just,  and  to  cast  back  into  the  bosom 
of  every  slanderer  the  filth  that  he  rakes  up  to  throw 
in  other  men's  faces.     As  for  men  of  more   indiffe- 

*  This  was  the  third  or  great  em-  paratists.     For    the    difference   he- 
igration,  under  W'inthrop.  tween  the  two,  considt  the  Chroni- 

*  The  first  planters  of  Massachu-  cles  of  Pljinouth,  pp.  398,  414-17. 
setts  were   Nonconformists,  not  Se- 


16 


THE  PLANTERS   PLEA. 


1630. 


CHAP,  rent  and  better  tempered  minds,  they  would  be  seri- 

oiisly  advised  to  beware  of  entertaining  and  admitting, 

much  more  countenancing  and  crediting  such  un- 
charitable persons  as  discover  themselves  by  their 
carriage,  and  that  in  this  particular,  to  be  men  ill 
affected  towards  the  work  itself,  if  not  to  religion,  at 
which  it  aims,  and  consequently  unlikely  to  report 
any  truth  of  such  as  undertake  it.^ 


'  The  Planters'  Plea,  from 
which  this  chapter  is  extracted,  was 
printed  in  London  iu  1G30,  soon  af- 
ter the  sailing  of  Winthrop's  fleet, 
as  appears  from  page  15.  It  has 
generally  been  ascribed  to  the  Rev. 
John  White,  of  Dorchester,  Eng- 
land, of  whom  some  account  will  be 
given  hereafter.  The  copy  which  I 
use,  and  which  formerly  belonged  to 
Increase  Mather,  has  on  the  title- 
page,  in  his  hand-writing,  "  Mr. 
White,  of  Dorchester,  Author."  — 
This  may  be  considered  good  au- 
thority, as  Increase  Mather  probably 
derived  his  information  from  his  fa- 
ther, Richard,  who  came  over  in 
1G35,  or  from  some  other  of  the 
first  settlers.  The  work  is  an  ori- 
ginal, contemporaneous  authority,  of 
the  highest  value,  as  it  contains  facts 
relating  to  the  earliest  attempts  at 
settlement  in  Massachusetts  Bay, 
which  can  be  found  nowhere  else, 
and  these  facts  furnished  by  the  per- 
sons who  were  themselves  engaged 
as  adventurers  in  these  attempts. 
See  page  3.  In  his  Preface  the  au- 
thor says,  "  The  reader  is  intreated 
to  observe  that  the  particulars  of  this 
.small  pamphlet  being  all  ranged  un- 
der these  tw^o  heads,  matters  oi  fact 
or  of  opinion,  in  the  former  the  author 
sets  down  his  knowledge,  and  conse- 
(juently  what  he  resolves  to  justify."' 


In  the  Preface  to  John  Cotton's 
sermon,  entitled  "  God's  Promise  to 
his  Plantation,"  delivered  just  be- 
fore the  departure  of  Winthrop's 
company,  I.  H.  (which  I  suppose 
to  be  the  initials  of  John  Humphrey, 
who,  though  chosen  Deputy  Gov- 
ernor of  the  Colony,  remained  be- 
hind, and  did  not  come  over  till  July 
1634,)  says,  "  Ere  long,  (if  God 
will,)  thou  shalt  see  a  larger  decla- 
ration of  the  first  rise  and  ends  of 
this  enterprise,  and  so  clear  and  full 
a  justification  of  this  design,  both  in 
respect  of  that  warrant  it  hath  from 
God's  word,  and  also  in  respect  of 
any  other  ground  and  circumstance 
of  weight  that  is  considerable  in  the 
warrant  of  such  a  work,  as  (I  hope) 
there  will  easily  be  removed  any 
scruide  of  moment  which  hitherto 
hath  been  moved  about  it."  The 
Planters'  Plea  corresponds  to  this 
description,  and  I  have  no  doubt  is 
the  work  which  the  writer  intended 
to  announce. 

The  Planters'  Plea  appears  to 
have  been  unknown  to  our  histo- 
rians. Neither  Mather,  Prince, 
Hutchinson,  Bancroft,  nor  Grahame 
make  any  use  or  mention  of  it.  IT\ib- 
bard  may  have  had  it ;  but  I  think 
he  derived  his  knowledge  of  the  first 
settlement  of  the  Colony  from  Co- 
nant  and  his  companions. 


HUBBARD'S   NARRATIVE. 


CHAPTER   11. 

THE    DISCOVERY    AND    FIRST     PLANTING    OF    THE    JMAS- 
SACHTJSETTS. 

Several  mariners   and  persons  skilled  in  naviga-  chap. 
tion,   (whether  employed  by  others  in  a  way  offish-  ^.^J.^ 
ing  and  trading,  or  to   satisfy  their   own  humors  in 
making  further  and  more  exact  discoveries  of  the 
country,  is  not  material,)  had  some  years  before  look- 
ed down  into  the  Massachusetts  Bay.^     The  inhabit- 
ants of  New  Plymouth  had  heard  the  fame  thereof,  i62i. 
and  in  the  first  year  after  their  arrival  there  took  an   Sept. 
occasion  to  visit  it,^  gaining  some  acquaintance  with 
the  natives  of  the  place,  in  order  to  future  traffic  with 
them.     For  which  purpose  something  like  a  habita- 
tion w^as  set  up  at  Nantasket,^  a  place  judged  then 

'  Capt.  John  Smith  appears  to  '  Gov.  Bradford  says,  "We  re- 
have  been  the  first  navigator,  of  turned  with  a  considerable  quantity 
whom  we  have  any  account,  that  of  beaver  and  a  good  report  of  the 
penetrated  to  the  bottom  of  Massa-  place,  icishhig  ice  had  been  seated 
chusetts  Bay.  This  was  in  1614.  there.'"  See  the  original  Journal  of 
He  says,  "  The  country  of  the  Mas-  the  expedition  in  the  Chronicles  of 
sachusetts  is  the  paradise  of  all  those  Plymouth,  pp.  224-229. 
parts ;  for  here  are  many  isles  all  ^  A  peninsula  at  the  entrance  of 
planted  with  com,  groves,  mulber-  Boston  harbour,  now  called  Hull, 
ries,  salvage  gardens,  and  good  har-  which  name  it  received  from  the 
hours."  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxvi.  General  Court  in  1644.  See  Sav- 
118.  age's  note  on  Winthrop,  ii.  175. 


20  ROGER    COXANT    AT    NANTASKET. 

CHAP,  most  commodious  for  such  an  end.     There  Mr.  Ro- 

ger  Conant,  with   some  few  others,  after  Mr.  Lyford 

and  Mr.  Oldham  were,  for  some  offence,  real  or  sup- 
posed, discharged  from  having  anything  more  to  do 

1624.  at  Plymouth,^  found  a  place  of  retirement  and  recep- 
tion for  themselves  and  families  for  the  space  of  a 
year  and  some  few  months,  till  a  door  was  opened 
for  them  at  Cape  Anne,  a  place  on  the  other  side  the 
Bay,  (more  convenient  for  those  that  belong  to  the 
tribe  of  Zebulon  than*  for  those  that  chose  to  dwell 
in   the  tents   of  Issachar,)    whither   they   removed 

1625.  about  the  year  1625.  And  after  they  had  made 
another  short  trial  thereof,  for  about  a  year's  contin- 

1626.  uance,  they  removed  a  third  time  down  a  little  lower 
towards  the  bottom  of  the  Bay,  being  invited  by  the 
accommodations  w^hich  they  either  saw  or  hoped  to 
find  on  the  other  side  of  a  creek  near  by,  called 


*  John  Lyford  came  over  to  Ply-  a  Court,  and  charges  Lyford  and  Old- 
imouth  in  the  spring  of  1624,  and  ham  with  plotting  against  us.  Old- 
John  Oldham  in  August,  1623.  Ro-  ham  being  outrageous,  would  have 
bert  Cushman,  in  a  letter  dated  Lon-  raised  a  mutiny;  but  his  party 
don,  Jan.  24,  1624,  wTites,  "  We  leaves  him,  and  the  Court  expels 
send  a  preacher,  though  not  the  them  the  colony."  Edward  Wins- 
most  eminent,  for  whose  going  Mr.  low,  the  agent  of  the  Plymouth  Co- 
Winslow  and  I  gave  way,  to  give  lony  in  England,  afterwards  made 
content  to  some  at  London."  Gov.  such  disclosures  there  respecting 
Bradford  also  speaks  of  "  the  min-  Lyford  as  confounded  the  party 
ister,  Mr.  John  Lyfgrd,  whom  a  among  the  merchant  adventurers 
faction  of  the  adventiirers  send  to  who  adhered  to  him,  and  he  was 
hinder  Mr.  Robinson."  Lyford  judged  unfit  for  the  ministry.  "By 
wrote  home  to  the  adverse  part  of  this,  (says  Prince,)  it  seems  as  if  the 
the  adventurers  in  1624,  counselling  Rev.  Mr.  White  and  the  Dorchester 
them  that  "  the  Leyden  company,  gentlemen  had  been  imposed  upon 
Mr.  Robinson  and  the  rest,  must  still  with  respect  to  Lyf<n-d  and  Oldham, 
be  kept  back,  or  else  all  will  be  spoil-  and  had  sent  invitations  to  them  he- 
ed." "Lyford,"  savs  Bradford,  fore  this  discovery."  A  minute  ac- 
"  soon  joins  with  Oldham,  and  they  count  of  this  aflair,  which  appears 
fall  a  plotting  both  against  our  to  justify  the  Plymouth  people,  may 
church  and  government,  draw  a  be  seen  in  ]\Iorton's  Memorial,  pp. 
company  apart,  set  up  for  them-  111-122.  See  also  Prince's  Annals, 
selves,  and  he  would  administer  the  pp.  226-232,  and  Chronicles  of  Ply- 
sacrament  to  them  by  his  Episcopal  mouth,  p.  476. 
calling.  Upon  this  the  Governor  calls 


PREPARATION  FOR  THE  COLONY.  21 

Naumkeag,  which  afforded  a  considerable  quantity  chap. 

of  planting  land  near  adjoining  thereto.     Here  they  • — >~^ 

took  up  their  station,   upon  a  pleasant  and  fruitful 

neck  of  land,  environed  with  an  arm  of  the  sea  on 

each  side,   in  either  of  which  vessels  and  ships  of 

good  burthen  might  safely  anchor.     In  this  place, 

(soon  after  by  a  minister,^  that  came  with  a  company  1629. 

of  honest  planters,  called  Salem,  from  that  in  Psalm 

Ixxvi.  2,)  was  laid  the  first  foundation  on  which  the 

next  colonies  were  built. 

Notwithstanding  the  many  adventures  which  had 

hitherto  been  made,  by  sundry  persons  of  estate  and 

quality,  for  the  discovery  and   improvement  of  this 

part  of  America,  called  New-England,  nothing  could 

as  yet  be  settled  by  way  of  planting  any  colony  upon 

the  coast,  with  desirable  success,  save  that  of  New 

Plymouth.-     As  for  the  rest  of  the  plantations,  they 

were  like  the  habitations   of  the  foolish,  as  it  is  in    -^^^^ 

'  V.  3. 

Job,  cursed  before  they  had  taken  root. 

But  the  vanishing  of  all  the  forementioned  at- 
tempts did  but  make  way  for  the  settling  the  Colony 
of  the  Massachusetts  ;  and  this  was  the  occasion 
thereof 

As  some  merchants  from  the  west  of  Ens-land  had 
for   a  long  time  frequented   the  parts   about  Mun- 


*  Francis  Higginson,  ^vho  says  in  The  Ph-mouth  Company's  in  1607, 

his  Journal,   "  When  we  came  first  near  the  mouth  of  the   Kennebec ; 

to  Naimkecke,  now  called  Salem."  (2.)     Weston's      at     Wessagusset 

Eoger  Conant,  the  founder  of  it,  ex-  (Weymouth)  in  1622  ;    (3.)  Robert 

pressly  disclaims  having  had  "  any  Gorge  "s  at  the  same  place  in  1623  ; 

hand  in  naming  that  town."     See  (4.)  David  Thomson's  at  the  mouth 

Mass.  Archives,  Towns,  i.  217.  of  the  Piscataqua  in  1623  ;  and  (5.) 

-  These  abortive  attempts  to  plant  Captain  Wollaston's   at   Quincy  in 

colonies  in  New-England,  were,  (1.)  1635. 


22  FISHING-STAGES    AT    CAPE    ANN. 

CHAP,  higgon/  for  the  taking  offish,- &c.,  so  did  others, 
— — —  especially  those  of  Dorchester,  make  the  like  attempt 
upon  the  northern  promontory  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay,  in  probability  first  discovered  by  Capt.  Smith, 
1611.  before  or  in  the  year  1614,  and  by  him  named  Tra- 
gabizanda,^  for  the  sake  of  a  lady  from  whom  he  re- 
ceived much  favor  w^hile  he  was  a  prisoner  among 
the  Turks  ;  by  whom  also  the  three  small  islands  at 
the  head  of  the  Cape  were  called  the  Three  Turks' 
Heads.  But  neither  of  them  glorying  in  these  Ma- 
hometan titles,  the  promontory  willingly  exchanged 
its  name  for  that  of  Cape  Anne,  imposed,  as  is  said, 
by  Capt.  Mason,'*  and  which  it  retaineth  to  this  day, 
in  honor  of  our  famous  Queen  Anne,  the  royal  con- 
sort of  King  James  ;  and  the  three  other  islands  are 
now  known  by  other  names. ^ 

Here  did  the  foresaid  merchants  first  erect  stages 
whereon  to  make  their  fish,  and  yearly  sent  their 
ships  thither  for-that  end  for  some  considerable  time, 
until  the  fame  of  the  Plantation  at  New  Plymouth, 
with  the  success  thereof,  was  spread  abroad  through 
all  the  western  parts  of  England  so  far,  as  that  it 
began  to  revive  the  hopes  of  some  of  those  merchants 
who  had  not  long  before  adventured  their  estates  to 
promote  so  honorable  a  design  as  was  the  planting 

'  See     Chronicles    of  Plymouth  Sparks's  American  Biography,  ii. 

Colony,  page  182,  note  %  and  Wil-  191-194,  197,  and  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 

liamson's  History  of  Maine,  i.  01.  xxvi.  97,  118,  120. 

^  "It  is  well  known,  before  our  ■*  This  is  a  mistake.  The  name 
breach  with  Spain,  (1G24,)  we  was  altered  by  Prince  Charles,  in 
usually  sent  out  to  New-England  honor  of  his  mother,  Anne  of  Den- 
yearly  forty  or  fifty  sail  of  shi])s  of  mark.  See  Mass.  Hist  Coll.  xxvi. 
reasoirable  good  burthen  for  fishing  97,  99,  and  xxiii.  20. 
only."  Planters' Plea,  p.  23.  See  "  They  are  now  called  Straits- 
also  note  on  p.  5.  mouth  island,  Thacher's  island,  and 

^  See  Hillard's  Life  of  Smith  in  Milk  island. 


A    PLANTATION    AT    CAPE    ANN.  23 

and  peopling  this  new  world  ;^    although,    finding  chap. 

hitherto  but   small   encouragement   that  way,   they  

were  ready  to  withdraw  their  hands. 

On  this  consideration  it  was,  that  some  merchants 
and  other  gentlemen  about  Dorchester  did,  about 
the  year  1624,  at  the  instigation  of  Mr.  White,  the  1624. 
famous  preacher  of  that  town,  upon  a  common  stock, 
together  with  those  that  were  coming  to  make  fish, 
send  over  sundry  persons,  in  order  to  the  carrying 
on  a  Plantation  at  Cape  Anne,  conceiving  that  plant- 
ing on  the  land  might  go  on  equally  with  fishing  on 
the  sea  in  those  parts  of  America. 

Mr.  John  Tylly^  and  Mr.  Thomas  Gardener^  w^ere 
employed  as  overseers  of  that  whole  business  ; 
the  first  with  reference  to  the  fishing,  the  other  with 
respect  to  the  planting  on  the  main  land,  at  least  for 
one  year's  time ;  at  the  end  of  which  Mr.  White,  1625. 
with  the  rest  of  the  Adventurers,  hearing  of  some 
religious  and  well-affected  persons,  that  were  lately 
removed  out  of  New  Plymouth,  out  of  dislike  of  their 
principles  of  rigid  Separation,  —  of  which  number 
Mr.  Roger  Conaxt^  was  one,  a  religious,  sober,  and 

^  In  1623,  thirteen  of  the  Compa-  tiers  of  New-England,  with   Sav- 

ny  of  Adventurers  in  England,  writ-  age's  Winthrop,  ii.  367. 
ing  to  their  brethren  at  New  Ply-        ■*  Roger   Conant,   to  whom  be- 

mouth,   tell  them,    "  Let  it  not  be  longs  the  high  honor  of  being  the 

grievous  to  you  that  you  have  been  first  planter  of  the  Colony  of  IMassa- 

instruments   to   break    the    ice    for  chusetts  Bay,  was  born  at  Budleigh, 

others  who  come  after  you.     The  near   Sidraouth,   in   the  county    of 

honor  shall  be  yours  to  the  world's  Devon,  in  the  year  1593,  as  we  in- 

end."     Bradford  in  Prince,  p.  220.  fer  from  the  record  in  the  parish  re- 

^  John   Tylley    was    admitted    a  gister    of    East     Budleigh,    which 

freeman  March  4,  1635.     See  Sav-  states  that  he  was  baptized  April  9, 

age's  Winthrop,  ii.  365.  1593.     He  was  probably  the  son  of 

^  Thomas   Gardner    removed    to  William  Conant,  who,   as  appears 

Salem  with  Conant,  was  admitted  a  from  the  same  register,  was  married 

freeman  !May  17,  1637,  and  was  a  Nov.  26,    1588.     W"e  have  no  ac- 

member  of  the    General  Court  the  count  of  the  time  or  manner  in  which 

same  j^ear.     Compare  Farmer's  Ge-  Roger  Conant  came  over  to  New- 

nealogical  Register  of  the  first  set-  England.     Christopher  Conant  was 


24  CONANT    APPOIiNTED    AGENT. 

CHAP,  prudent  gentleman,   yet  surviving   about  Salem  till 

the  year  1680,  wherein  he  finished  his  pilgrimage, 

1625.  having  a  great  hand  in  all  these  forementioned  trans- 
actions about  Cape  Anne,  —  they  pitched  upon  him, 
the  said  Conant,  for  the  managing  and  government 
of  all  their  affairs  at  Cape  Anne.  The  information 
he  had  of  him,  was  from  one  Mr.  Conant,  a  brother 
of  his,  and  well  known  to  Mr.  White;  and  he  was  so 
well  satisfied  therein,  that  he  engaged  Mr.  Plum- 
phrey,the  treasurer  of  the  joint  Adventurers,  to  write 
to  him  in  their  names,  and  to  signify  that  they  had 
chosen  him  to  be  their  governor  in  that  place,  and 
would  commit  unto  him  the  charge  of  all  their  affairs, 
as  well  fishing  as  planting.  Together  with  him, 
likewise,  they  invited  Mr.  Lyford,  lately  dismissed 
from  Plymouth,  to  be  the  minister  of  the  place  ;  and 
Mr.  Oldham,  also  discharged  on   the  like   account 


one  of  ihc  passengers  in  the  Anne,  Bass  river,  in  what  is  now  the  town 

which  arrived  at  Plymouth  in  1023.  of  lieverly,  on  which  he  settled,  and 

But  I  find  no  evidence  in  Gov.  Brad-  in   1671,   the  General   Court  made 

ford  or  Morton,  or  in  any  of  the  Ply-  him  a  grant  of  two  hundred  acres 

mouth  records  or  authorities,  to  con-  more,  on   the  ground  of  his   being 

firm   the   statement   here   made  by  "  an   ancient   planter."      He    died 

Hubbard,  that   Roger  Conant   was  Nov.  19,  1679,  in  the  87th  year  of 

once  a  resident  in  that  colony,  and  his  age.     Hutchinson  says,  "  He  is 

was  expelled  from  it  with   Lyford  always   spoken   of  as   a   person  of 

and    Oldham.      Still  it   may   have  worth.  The  superior  condition  of  the 

been  so  ;  and  Hubbard  may  have  got  persons  who  came  over  with  the  char- 

his  information  from    Conant    him-  ter  cast  a  shade  upon  him,  and  he 

self.      The    same    mystery    hangs  lived  in  obscurity.     Governor's  Isl- 

over  his  arrival  and  early  residence  and,  in  Boston  harbour,  [on  which  is 

here,  as  over  Walford,  Blackstone,  now   Fort  Warren,]  was    formerly 

and  Maverick.     They  all  probably  called  Conant's  island."  Conant  had 

came  over   in  some  of  the  fishing-  four  sons.     Roger,  the  second,  was 

vessels  that  were  constantly  hover-  the  first  child  born  in  Salem,  and  on 

ing  on  the  coast.     He  was  admitted  that  account  received  from  the  town, 

a  freeman    of  the  Colony  May  18,  in  1640,  a  grant  of  twenty  acres  of 

1631,  and  was  a  representative  from  land.     See  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxvii. 

Salem  in  the  first  Court  of  Deputies,  250-255,     xxviii.    306;      Savage's 

held  in  1634.     In  1636,  he  received  Winthrop,   i.    130,  ii.  362  ;  Stone's 

from  that  town  a  grant  of  two  hun-  Hist,  of  Beverly,  p.  18;  and  Hutch- 

dred  acres  of  land  at  the  head  of  inson's  Hist,  of  Mass.  i.  7. 


CONANT    REMOVES    TO    CAPE    ANN.  25 

a-om  Plymouth,  was  invited  to  trade  for  them  with  chap. 

tie  Indians.     All  these  three  at  that  time  had  their  

dwelling  at  Nantasket.  Mr.  Lyford  accepted,  and  i625. 
came  along  with  Mr.  Conant.  Mr.  Oldham  liked 
better  to  stay  where  he  was  for  a  while,  and  trade 
for  himself,  and  not  become  liable  to  give  an  account 
of  his  gain  or  loss.  But  after  a  year's  experience,  1626. 
the  Adventurers,  perceiving  their  design  not  like  to 
answer  their  expectation,  at  least  as  to  any  present 
advantage,  threw  all  up  ;  yet  were  so  civil  to  those 
that  were  employed  under  them,  as  to  pay  them  all 
their  wages,  and  proffered  to  transport  them  back 
whence  they  came,  if  so  they  desired. 

It  must  here  be  noted,  that  Mr.  Roger  Conant,  on 
the  foresaid  occasion  made  the  superintendent  of 
their  affairs,  disliked  the  place  as  much  as  the  Ad- 
venturers disliked  the  business  ;  and  therefore,  in 
the  mean  while,  had  made  some  inquiry  into  a  more 
commodious  place  near  adjoining,  on  the  other  side 
of  a  creek,  called  Naumkeag,^  a  little  to  the  west- 
ward, where  was  much  better  encouragement  as  to 
the  design  of  a  Plantation,  than  that  which  they  had 
attempted  upon  before  at  Cape  Anne  ;  secretly  con- 
ceiving in  his  mind,  that  in  following  times  (as  since 
is  fallen  out)  it  might  prove  a  receptacle  for  such 
as  upon  the  account  of  religion  would  be  willing  to 
begin  a  foreign  Plantation  in  this  part  of  the  world  ; 
of  which  he  gave  some  intimation  to  his  friends 
in  England.  Wherefore  that  reverend  person,  Mr. 
White,   (under   God,  one  of  the  chief  founders  of 


>  Capt.    John  Smith   wites  this     Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxvi.  97,  107,  118 
Naemkeck,  Naemkecke,  and  Nairn-    and  xxiii.  22,  34. 
keck.     See  note  on  page   12,   and 


26 


WHITE    WRITES    TO    CONANT. 


IG2G, 


CHAP,  the  Massachusetts  Colony  in  New-England,)^  being 
- — —-  grieved  in  his  spirit  that  so  good  a  work  should  be 
suffered  to  fall  to  the  ground  by  the  Adventurers 
thus  abruptly  breaking  off,  did  write  to  Mr.  Conant 
not  so  to  desert  the  business,  faithfully  promising 
that  if  himself,  with  three  others,  (whom  he  knew  to 
be  honest  and  prudent  men,  viz.  John  Woodberry, 
John  Balch,^  and  Peter  Palfreys,^  employed  by  the 


^  John  White,  "  usually  called," 
says  Anthony  Wood,  "  patriarch  of 
Dorchester,  or  patriarch  White," 
was  born  at  Stanton  St.  John  in 
Oxfordsliire,  in  1575,  and  was  edu- 
cated first  at  Winchester,  and  then 
at  New  College,  Oxford,  of  which 
he  was  fellow.  In  1G05  he  became 
rector  of  Trinity  parish  in  Dorches- 
ter. Wood  says,  "  He  was  for  the 
most  part  of  his  time  a  moderate 
Puritan,  and  conformed  to  the  cere- 
monies of  the  Church  of  England 
before  and  when  Archbishop  Laud 
sat  at  the  stern."  On  the  breaking 
out  of  the  civil  wars,  he  sided  with 
the  popular  party  ;  and  his  house 
and  library  having  been  plundered 
by  the  royalists  under  Prince  Ru- 
pert, he  came  to  Loudon,  and  was 
made  minister  of  the  Savoy  parish. 
In  1643  he  was  chosen  one  of  the 
Assembly  of  Divines  at  Westmin- 
ster, and  "  showed  himself  one  of 
the  most  learned  and  moderate 
among  them,  and  his  judgment  was 
much  relied  on  therein."  Soon 
after  he  was  appointed  rector  of 
Lambeth,  in  Surrey.  When  the  civil 
wars  were  over,  he  returned  to  Dor- 
chester, and  in  1617  was  chosen 
warden  of  New  College,  but  declin- 
ed the  honor.  lie  died  suddenly 
July  24,  1648,  in  his  74th  year,  anil 
was  buried  July  21,  in  the  porch  of 
St.  Peter's  in  Dorchester.  Wood 
says,  "He  was  a  person  of  great 
gravity  and  presence,  and  had  al- 
ways influence  on  the  Puritanical 
party,  near  to  and  remote  from  him, 
who  bore  him  more  respect  than 
they  did  to  their  diocesan."   Fuller, 


in  his  Worthies,  says  that  "  he  had 
a  jiatriarchal  influence  both  in  Old 
and  New  England."  Callender,  in 
his  Historical  Discourse  on  Rhode 
Island,  calls  him  "  the  father  of  the 
Massachusetts  Colony."  His  name 
will  often  occur  hereafter  in  the 
meetings  of  the  Massachusetts  Com- 
pany in  London.  See  Wood's 
Athen.  Ox.  iii.  236,  (ed.  Bliss)  ; 
Fuller's  Worthies  of  England,  ii. 
233  ;  Hulchins's  History  of  Dorset, 
i.  390 ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii. 
306  ;  and  Rhode  Island  Hist.  Coll. 
iv.  67. 

^  John  Balch  is  said  to  have  come 
from  Bridge  water,  in  Somersetshire. 
He   was  made  a  freeman  May  18, 

1631.  In  1636,  he  received,  at  the 
same  time  with  Conant,  a  grant  of 
two  hundred  acres  of  land  at  the 
head  of  Bass  river,  near  the  present 
residence  of  Mr.  John  Bell,  in  Bev- 
erly, where  he  died  in  1648.  He 
was  an  intelligent,  exemplary,  and 
useful  citizen.  He  had  two  wives, 
Margaret  and  Agnes,  and  three  sons, 
the  second  of  whom,  John,  married 
Mary,  the  daughter  of  Roger  Co- 
nant, and  was  drowned  in  crossing 
the  ferry  to  Beverly,  Jan.  16,  1662. 
See  Farmer's  Gen.  Register,  and 
Stone's  Hist,  of  Beverly,  p.  23. 

^  Peter  Palfrey  was  admitted  a 
freeman  May  18,   1631.      In  May, 

1632,  when  each  town  in  the  Colony 
chose  two  men  to  advise  with  the 
Governor  and  Assistants  at  the  next 
Court  about  raising  a  public  stock  — 
the  "  embryo  of  a  parliament,"  as 
Savage  calls  it — Palfrey  was  joined 
with  Conant  in  this  trust.     In  1635, 


CON  ANT    RESOLVES    TO    REMAIN. 


27 


Adventurers,)  would  stay  at  Naumkeag,  and  give  chap. 
timely  notice  thereof,  he  would  provide  a  patent  for  — -^~. 
them,  and  likewise  send  them  whatever  they  should  16  26. 
write  for,  either  men,  or  provision,  or  goods  where- 
with to  trade  with  the  Indians.  Answer  was  return- 
ed, that  they  would  all  stay  on  those  terms,  entreat- 
ing that  they  might  be  encouraged  accordingly.  Yet 
it  seems,  before  they  received  any  return  according 
to  their  desires,  the  three  last  mentioned  began  to 
recoil,  and  repenting  of  their  engagement  to  stay  at 
Naumkeag,  for  fear  of  the  Indians  and  other  incon- 
veniences, resolved  rather  to  go  all  to  Virginia  ; 
especially  because  Mr.  Lyford,  their  minister,  upon 
a  loving  invitation,  was  thither  bound. ^  But  Mr. 
Conant,  as  one  inspired  by  some  superior  instinct, 
though  never  so  earnestly  pressed  to  go  along  with 
them,  peremptorily  declared  his  mind  to  wait  the 
providence  of  God  in  that  place  where  now  they 
were,  yea,  though  all  the  rest  should  forsake  him,^ 


he  was  a  deputy  from  Salem  in  the 
second  General  Court.  In  1636, 
with  the  other  ftrst  planters,  he  re- 
ceived a  grant  of  two  hundred  acres 
of  land  on  Bass  river.  In  1653  he 
removed  to  Reading,  where  he  died 
Sept.  15,  1663.  His  estate  was 
apprized  at  £84  10s.  His  wife's 
name  was  Edith,  and  he  had  a  son 
Jonathan,  and  three  daughters,  Je- 
hodan.  Remember,  and  Mary.  De- 
scendants of  this  w^orthy  planter 
remain  in  Salem,  and  the  present 
Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth, 
John  Gorham  Palfrey,  claims  him 
as  his  ancestor.  See  Farmer's  Re- 
gister, Savage's  Winthrop,  ii.  362, 
and  Prince's  Annals,  p.  394. 

^  "And  there  shortly  dies."  — 
Bradford,  in  Prince,  p.  245. 

-  In  the  Archives  of  the  Common- 
wealth there  is  preserved  a  petition. 


in  his  own  hand-writing,  "  of  Roger 
Conant  of  Bass  River,  alias  Bev- 
erly," dated  May  28,  1671.  In  that 
pethion  he  says,  that  he  "  hath  been 
a  planter  in  New-England  forty 
years  and  upwards,  being  one  of  the 
first,  if  not  the  very  first,  that  re- 
solved and  made  good  any  settle- 
ment, under  God,  in  matter  of  plan- 
tation, with  my  family,  in  this  Col- 
ony of  the  IMassachusetts  Bay,  and 
have  been  instrumental  both  for  the 
founding  and  can-ying  on  of  the 
same ;  and  when,  in  the  infancy 
thereof,  it  was  in  great  hazard  of 
being  deserted,  I  was  a  means, 
through  grace  assisting  me,  to  stop 
the  fiight  of  those  few  that  then 
were  here  with  me,  and  that  by  my 
utter  denial  to  go  away  with  them, 
who  would  have  gone  either  for 
England,  or  mostly  for  Virginia,  but 


28 


JOHN  WOODBURY  SENT  TO  ENGLAND. 


CHAP,  not  doubting,  as  he  said,   but   if  they  departed,  he 

--T —  should  soon  have  more  company.  The  other  three, 
observing  his  confident  resolution,  at  last  concurred 

1G27.  with  him,  and  soon  after  sent  back  John  Woodberry^ 
for  England  to  procure  necessaries  for  a  Plantation. 
But  that  God,  who  is  ready  to  answer  his  people 
before  they  call,  as  he  had  filled  the  heart  of  that  good 
man,  Mr.  Conant,  in  New-England,  with  courage  and 
resolution  to  abide  fixed  in  his  purpose,  notwithstand- 
ing all  opposition  and  persuasion  he  met  with  to  the 
contrary,  had  also  inclined  the  hearts  of  several  others 
in  England  to  be  at  work  about  the  same  design.  For 
about  this  time  the  Council  established  at  Plymouth  for 
the  planting,  ruling,  ordering  and  governing  of  New- 
England,"  had,  by  a  deed  indented  under  the  common 

1628.  seal,  bearing  date  March  19,  1627,  bargained  and  sold 


thereupon  stayed  to  the  hazard  of 
our  lives."  In  the  same  petition  he 
says  that  he  "  was  the  first  that  had 
a  house  in  Salem,"  that  "  those  that 
were  then  with  him  were  all  from 
the  western  part  of  England,"  and 
that  he  himself  was  "  born  at  Bud- 
leigh,  a  market-town  in  Devonshire, 
near  unto  the  sea."  See  Mass.  Ar- 
chives, Towns,  i.  217.  The  peti- 
tion is  printed  entire  in  Mass.  Hist. 
Coll.  xxvii.  252. 

'  John  Woodbury  is  said  to  have 
come  from  Somersetshire,  in  Eng- 
land. He  was  made  a  freeman  May 
18,  1631,  and  in  1635  was  chosen, 
with  Palfrey,  a  deputy  to  the  Gene- 
ral Court,  and  again  in  1638.  In 
1636,  in  connection  with  Conant, 
Iklch,  and  Palfrey,  he  received 
from  the  town  a  grant  of  two  hun- 
dred acres  of  land  on  Bass  river. 
"  He  was  an  energetic,  faithful  and 
worthy  man,  and  took  an  active  part 
in  the  settlement  and  transactions  of 
the  Colony.  He  died  in  1611,  hav- 
ing lived  to  see  his  perils,  sufferings 


and  toils  contribute  to  prepare  a  re- 
fuge for  his  countrymen."  His 
wife's  name  was  Agnes,  and  his 
son,  Humphrey,  born  in  1609,  came 
to  Salem  with  his  father  in  1628, 
and  was  living  in  1081.  The  home- 
stead has  remained  in  the  family 
since  the  first  settlement.  All  bear- 
ing the  name  of  Woodbury  in  New- 
England  probably  descend  from  John 
or  his  brother  William.  See  Farm- 
er's Register  and  Stone's  History  of 
Beverly,  pp.  21-23. 

-  On  the  3d  of  Nov.  1620,  King 
James  signed  a  patent  by  which  the 
adventurers  to  the  northern  colony 
of  Virginia  between  forty  and  forty- 
eight  degrees  north,  were  incorpora- 
ted as  "  The  Council  established  at 
Plymouth,  in  the  county  of  Devon, 
for  the  planting,  ruling,  ordering 
and  governing  of  New-England  in 
America."  This  is  the  great  civil 
basis  of  the  future  patents  and  plant- 
ations that  divide  the  country.  See 
the  patent  in  Hazard's  Collection  of 
State  Papers,  i.  103. 


A    PATENT    OBTAINED.  29 

unto  some  knights  and  gentlemen  about  Dorchester, 
namely,  Sir  Henry  Roswell,  Sir  John  Yomig,  knights, 
Thomas  Southcoat,  John  Humphry,  John  Endicot,  i^^^- 
and  Simon  Whetcomb,^  gentlemen,  that  part  of  New- 
England  that  lies  between  Merrimack  and  Charles 
river,  in  the  bottom  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay.  And 
not  long  after,  by  the  means  of  Mr.  White,  the  fore- 
said gentlemen  were  brought  into  acquaintance  with 
several  other  religious  persons  of  like  quality  in  and 
about  London,  such  as  Mr.  Winthrop,  Mr.  Johnson, 
Mr.  Dudley,  Mr.  Cradock,  and  Mr.  Goffe,  and  Sir 
Richard  Saltonstall ;  who  being  first  associated  to 
them,  at  last  bought  of  them  all  their  right  and  in- 
terest in  New-England  aforesaid ;  and  consulting 
together  about  settling  some  Plantation  in  New-Eng- 
land upon  the  account  of  religion,  where  such  as 
were  called  Nonconformists  might,  with  the  favor 
and  leave  of  the  King,  have  a  place  of  reception  if 
they  should  transport  themselves  into  America, 
there  to  enjoy  the  liberty  of  their  ow^n  persuasion  in 
matters  of  worship  and  church  discipline,  without 
disturbance  of  the  peace  of  the  kingdom,  and  without 
offence  to  others  not  like-minded  with  themselves, 
did  at  the  last  resolve,  with  one  joint  consent,  to 
petition  the  King's  Majesty  to  confirm  unto  the  fore- 
named  and  their  associates,  by  a  new  grant  or  patent, 
the  tract  of  land  in  America  forementioned  ;  which 
was  accordingly  obtained. ~ 


'  "  It  is  very  likely  the  three  per-  projected,  we  hear  no  more  of  them, 
sons  first  named  in  this  gi-ant  had  The  other  three  remained."  Hutch- 
nothing  more  in  view  by  the  pur-  inson's  Hist.  Mass.  i.  9. 
chase  than  a  settlement  for  trade  -  "  Some  of  the  principal  of  the 
with  the  natives,  or  for  fishery,  or  liberal  speakers  in  parliament  being 
for  other  advantageous  purposes,  committed  to  the  Tower,  others  to 
As  soon  as  a  colony  for  religion  was  other    prisons,  this  took    away  all 


30 


ENDICOTT    AT    SALEM. 


1628, 


Soon  after,  the  Company,  having  chosen  Mr.  Cra- 
dock,  Governor,  and  Mr.  GofFe,  Deputy  Governor, 
with  several  others  for  Assistants,  sent  over  Mr.  En- 
dicot,  in  the  year  1628,  to  carry  on  the  Plantation 
of  the  Dorchester  agents  at  Naiimkeag,  or  Salem, 
and  make  way  for  the  settling  of  another  Colony  in 
the  Massachusetts.  He  was  fully  instructed  with 
power  from  the  Company  to  order  all  affairs  in  the 
name  of  the  Patentees,  as  their  agent,  until  them- 
selves should  come  over  ;  which  was  at  that  time 
intended,  but  could  not  be  accomplished  till  the 
year  1630.  With  Mr.  Endicot,  in  the  year  1628, 
came   Mr.   Gotte,^  Mr.   Brakenberry,^  Mr.  Daven- 


hope  of  reformation  of  Church  gov- 
ernment from  many  not  affecting 
Episcopal  jurisdiction,  nor  tiie  usual 
practice  of  the  common  prayers  of 
the  Church,  whereof  there  were 
several  sorts,  though  not  agreeing 
among  themselves,  yet  all  of  like 
dislike  of  those  particulars.  Some 
of  the  disereeter  sort,  to  avoid  what 
they  found  themselves  suhject  unto, 
made  use  of  their  friends  to  procure 
from  the  Council  for  the  Affairs  of 
New-England  to  settle  a  colony 
within  their  limits ;  to  which  it 
pleased  the  thrice-honored  Lord  of 
Warwick  to  write  to  me,  then  at 
Plymouth ,  to  condescend  that  a  pa- 
tent might  be  granted  to  such  as 
then  sued  for  it.  Whereupon  I 
gave  my  approbation  so  far  forth  as 
it  might  not  be  prejudicial  to  my  son 
Robert  Gorges's  interests,  whereof 
he  had  a  patent  under  the  seal  of 
the  Council.  Hereupon  there  was 
a  grant  passed  as  was  thought  rea- 
sonable. But  the  same  was  after 
enlarged  by  his  Majesty,  and  con- 
firmed imder  the  great  seal  of  Eng- 
land ;  by  the  authority  whereof  the 
undertakers  proceeded  so  effectually, 
that  in  a  very  short  time  numbers 
of  people  of  all  sorts  flocked  thitlier 
in  heaps.'"  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorge, 
in  Mass.  Hist.  C^oll.  xxvi.  80. 


^  "Mr."  Charles  Gott  was  admitted 
a  freeman  May  18,  1031,  and  was  a 
representative  from  Salem  in  the 
General  Court  in  1035.  He  was  a 
deacon  of  the  Church  there ;  and  the 
selectmen  of  the  town,  on  June  25, 
1638,  voted  to  him  and  John  Home 
five  acres  of  land,  which  was  long 
known  as  the  Deacons'  Marsh.  It 
was  situated  in  South  Fields,  near 
Castle  Hill.  He  removed  to  Wen- 
ham,  which  he  represented  in  1054, 
and  died  in  1067  or  1688.  A  letter 
written  by  him  to  Gov.  Bradford, 
July  30,  1029,  giving  an  account  of 
the  choice  of  Skelton  and  Higginson 
as  pastor  and  teacher  of  the  church 
at  Salem,' is  contained  in  Mass.  Hist. 
Coll.  iii.  67.  It  appears  by  this  let- 
ter that  he  and  his  wife  had  both 
been  at  Plymouth  ;  and  from  this 
fact  I  am  almost  tempted  to  believe 
that  he  aiTived  there,  and  did  not 
come  with  Endicott  in  the  Alugail. 
See  Farmer's  Register  and  Felt's 
Annals  of  Salem,  i.  183. 

^  Richard  Brackenbury  took  the 
oath  of  freeman  May  14,  1634,  and 
in  1636  received  a  grant  of  seventy- 
five  acres  of  land.  He  was  one  of 
the  early  settlers  of  Beverly,  and 
died  there  in  1685,  aged  85.  See 
Farmer's  Gen.  Register,  and  Stone's 
Beverly,  p.  24. 


THE    EMIGRANTS    WITH    ENDICOTT. 


31 


port/  and  others  f  who,  being  added  to  Capt.  Trask^  chap. 

and  John  Woodberry,  (that  was  before  this  time  re ~ 

turned  w^ith  a  comfortable  answer  to  them  that  sent  1628. 
him  over,)  went  on  comfortably  together  to  make  pre- 
paration for  the  new  Colony  that  were  coming  over  ; 
the  late  controversy  that  had  been  agitated  with  too 
much  animosity  betwixt  the  forementioned  Dorches- 
ter planters  and  their  new  agent,  Mr.  Endicot,  and 
his  company  then  sent  over,  being  by  the  prudent 
moderation  of  Mr.  Conant,  agent  before  for  the  Dor- 
chester merchants,  quietly  composed  ;'*  that  so  meum 
and  tuum,  that  divide  the  world,  should  not  disturb 
the  peace  of  good   Christians,  that   came  so  far  to 


*  Richard  Davenport  was  admit- 
ted a  freeman  Sept.  3,  1634,  and 
was  a  representative  in  1637  from 
Salem,  wliere  he  resided  till  1642. 
He  was  ensign-bearer  at  the  time 
that  Endicott  cut  the  cross  ont  of 
the  King's  colors,  was  a  lieuten- 
ant in  the  Pequot  war,  in  which  he 
was  dangerously  wounded,  and  af- 
terwards was  captain  of  the  castle 
in  Boston  harbour,  where  he  was 
killed  by  lightning,  July  15,  1665, 
aged  59.  See  Fanner's  Register, 
Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  146,  192, 
233,  and  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xviii. 
146,  236. 

^  The  omission  here  of  the  name 
of  the  Spragues,  (Ralph,  Richard, 
and  William,)  invalidates  the  asser- 
tion of  Felt  that  they  "  were  among 
the  emigrants  who  came  in  the  Abi- 
gail," with  Endicott,  and  confirms 
the  construction  put  by  Gov.  Everett 
on  the  statement  in  tlie  Charlestown 
records,  that  "they  arrived  at  Salem 
at  their  own  charge,"  that  is,  as 
"  independent  adventurers,  not  mem- 
bers of  Gov.  Endicott's  Company." 
See  Felt's  Salem,  p.  44,  and  Ed- 
ward Everett's  Address  at  Charles- 
town  on  the  anniversaiy  of  the  ani- 
val  of  Gov.  Winthrop,  p.  19. 

3  u  ]yij._„  William  Trask  desired  to 


be  made  freeman  on  the  19th  of  Octo- 
ber, 1630.  He  represented  Salem 
five  years,  from  1635  to  1639.  In 
January,  1636,  he  received  from  that 
tOMai,  at  the  same  time  with  Conant, 
Palfrey,  Woodbuiy,  and  Balch,  a 
grant  of  two  hundred  acres  of  land 
on  Bass  river.  He  was  a  captain 
under  Stoughton  m  the  Pequot  war, 
and  died  in  1666,  It  would  appear 
from  the  text  that  he  was  one  of  Cc- 
nant's  company,  and  not,  as  Felt 
says,  "among  the  emigrants  who 
came  in  the  Abigail,"  with  En- 
dicott. See  Fanner's  Register, 
Stone's  Beverly,  p.  20,  Felt's  Sa- 
lem, p.  44,  and  Mass.  Hist.  CoU. 
x\-iii.  146,  147,  236. 

*  White  alludes  to  tliis  controver- 
sy between  the  old  planters  under 
Conant  and  the  new  comers  with 
Endicott,  when  in  speaking  of  the 
change  of  name  from  Nahumkeik  to 
Salem,  he  says  that  it  was  done 
"upon  a  fair  ground,  in  remem- 
brance of  a  jieace  settled  upon  a  con- 
ference at  a  general  meeting  be- 
tween them  and  their  neighbours, 
after  expectance  of  some  dangerous 
jar."  See  page  12,  and  Planters' 
Plea,  p.  14.  See  also  what  Hub- 
bard says,  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xv. 
113. 


1628. 


32  SICKNESS    AMONG    THE    COLONISTS. 

CHAP,  provide  a  place  where  to  live  together  in  Christian 
amity  and  concord. 

In  the  same  year  were  sent  over  several  servants 
upon  the  joint  stock  of  the  Company,  who,  arriving 
there  in  an  uncultivated  desert,  for  w^ant  of  whole- 
some diet  and  convenient  lodgings,  w"ere  many  of 
them  seized  with  the  scurvy  and  other  distempers,^ 
which  shortened  many  of  their  days,  and  prevented 
many  of  the  rest  from  performing  any  great  matter  of 
labor  that  year  for  advancing  the  w^ork  of  the  Plant- 
ation. Yet  was  the  good  hand  of  God  upon  them  so 
far,  as  that  something  was  done  which  tended  to  ad- 
vantage ;  nor  was,  upon  that  account,  an  evil  report 
brought  upon  the  place  by  any  of  them,  so  as  to  dis- 
courage others  from  coming  after  them. 

During  this  whole  lustre  of  years,  from  1625,  there 
was  little  matter  of  moment  acted  in  the  Massachu- 
setts, till  the  year  1629,  after  the  obtaining  the  pa- 
tent ;  the  former  years  being  spent  in  fishing  and 
trading  by  the  agents  of  the  Dorchester  merchants 
and  some  others  of  the  west  country. 

1G25.  In  one  of  the  fishing  voyages  about  the  year  1625, 
under  the  charge  and  command  of  one  Mr.  Hewes, 
employed  by  some  of  the  west  country  merchants, 
there  arose  a  sharp  contest  between  the  said  Hewes 
and  the  people  of  New  Plymouth,  about  a  fishing-stage, 
built  the  year  before  about  Cape  Anne  by  Plymouth 
men,  but  was  now,  in  the  absence  of  the  builders 

^  "Upon  which,"  says  Governor  Salem,  May  11,  1G29,  says,  "  I  ac- 

Bradford,    "  Mr.  Endicott,    hearing  loiowiedg-e  myself  much  bomid   to 

we  at  Plymouth  have  a  very  skilful  you  for  your  kind   love  and  care  in 

doctor,  namely,    Mr.  Fuller,   sends  sending'   Mr.  Fuller   amongst   us." 

to  our  governor  for  him,  who  forth-  See   Prince's  Annals,  p.  253,   Mor- 

with  sends  him  to  their  assistance."  ton's  Memorial,  p.  144,   and  Chron- 

Endicott  writing  to  Bradford  from  icles  of  Plymouth,  p.  223. 


DISPUTE    AT    CAPE    ANN. 


33 


made  use  of  by  Mr.  Hewes  his  company  ;  which  the  chap. 
other,  under   the   conduct    of  Capt.  Standish,   very  — — - 
eagerly  and  peremptorily  demanded.     For  the  Com-  1625. 
pany  of  New  Plymouth,  having  themselves  obtained 
a  useless  patent  for  Cape  Anne  about  the  year  1623,^  i623. 
sent  some  of  the  ships,  which  their  Adventurers  em- 
ployed to  transport  passengers  over  to  them,  to  make 
fish  there  ;  for  which  end  they  had  built   a  stage 
there   in  the  year  1624.^     The  dispute  grew  to  be  i624. 
very  hot,    and  high  words  passed  between  them  ; 
which  might  have  ended  in  blows,  if  not  in  blood  and 
slaughter,  had  not  the  prudence  and  moderation  of 
Mr.  Roger  Conant,  at   that  time   there   present,  and 
Mr.  Peirce's^  interposition,  that  lay  just  by  with  his 
ship,  timely  prevented.     For  Mr.  Hewes  had  barri- 
cadoed  his  company  with  hogsheads  on  the  stage- 
head,  while  the  demandants  stood  upon  the  land,  and 
might  easily  have  been  cut  off.     But  the  ship's  crew, 
by  advice,  promising  to  help  them  build  another,  the 
difference  was  thereby  ended. ^     Capt.  Standish  had 


'  Robert  Cusbman,  writing  to 
Gov.  Bradford  from  London,  Jan. 
24,  1624,  says,  "  We  have  taken  a 
patent  for  Cape  Ann."  Prince's 
Annals,  p.  226. 

^  Christopher  Levett,  who  was  on 
the  coast  of  New -England  in  1624, 
says,  that  "  the  people  of  New  Ply- 
mouth have  begun  a  new  plantation 
at  Cape  Ann  ;  but  how  long  it  will 
continue,  I  know  not;"  and  Capt. 
John  Smith,  writing  in  1624,  says, 
"  At  Cape  Ann  there  is  a  planta- 
tion begun  by  the  Dorchester  men, 
whicli  they  hold  of  those  of  New 
Plymouth  ;  who  also  by  them  have 
setup  a  fisliing-work."  See  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  181,  and  Prince's 
Annals,  pp.  227,  228,  230. 

'  Capt.  William  Peirce,  whose 
name  will    frequently  occur  in  these 


Chronicles,  and  who  "  deserves  hon- 
orable mention  among  the  early  na- 
vigators between  Old  England  and 
New."  See  Savage's  valuable  note 
on  ^Yinthrop,  i.  25,  to  which  no- 
thing can  be  added. 

■•  Gov.  Bradford  gives  a  different 
version  of  this  affaii*.  He  says  that 
"  some  of  Lyford  and  Oldham's 
friends  in  the  company  of  the  mer- 
chant adventurers  in  London,  set 
out  a  ship  a  fishing,  and  getting  the 
start  of  ours,  they  take  our  stage 
and  other  provisions  made  for  fishing 
at  Cape  Ann  the  year  before,  to 
our  gi-eat  charge,  and  refuse  to  re- 
store it  without  fighting ;  upon 
which  we  let  them  keep  it,  and  our 
Governor  sends  some  planters  to 
help  the  fishermen  build  another." 
And  in  a  letter  to   the   Council  for 


34 


MILES    STANDISH. 


CHAP,  been  bred  a  soldier  in  the  Low  Countries,  and  never 

entered  the  school  of  our  Saviour  Christ,  or  of  John 

1625.  Baptist,  his  harbinger  ;  or,  if  he  was  ever  there,  had 
forgot  his  first  lessons,  to  offer  violence  to  no  man, 
and  to  part  with  the  cloak  rather  than  needlessly 
contend  for  the  coat,  though  taken  away  without 
order.  A  little  chimney  is  soon  fired  ;  so  was  the 
Plymouth  captain,  a  man  of  very  little  stature,  yet  of 
a  very  hot  and  angry  temper.  The  fire  of  his  pas- 
sion soon  kindled,  and  blown  up  into  a  flame  by  hot 
words,  might  easily  have  consumed  all,  had  it  not 
been  seasonably  quenched.^ 

In  transactions  of  this  nature  were  the  first  three 
years  spent  in  making  way  for  the  planting  of  the 
Massachusetts.- 


New-England,  dated  June  28,  1625, 
he  writes,  "  We  are  now  left  and 
forsaken  of  our  adventurers,  who 
have  not  only  cast  us  off,  but  enter- 
ed into  particular  course  of  trading, 
and  have  by  violence  and  force  taken 
at  their  pleasure  our  possession  at 
Cape  Ann."  See  Prince's  Annals, 
p.  233,  and  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  iii.  38. 
'  This  account  of  Standish  is  gi-a- 
phic,  but  flippant  and  unjust.  Judge 
Davis  remarks,  "  It  does  not  appear 
that  his  conduct  was  reprehensible. 
He  acted  under  authority,  and  was 
sent  to  enforce  a  manifest  right." 
Belknap  says,  "The  best  apology 
for  Captain  Standish  is,  that  as  a 
soldier  he  had  been  accustomed  to 
discipline  and  obedience ;  that  he 
considered  liimself  as  the  military 
servant  of  the  Colony,  and  received 
his  orders  from  the  Governor  and 
people.  Sedentary  persons  are  not 
always  the  best  judges  of  a  soldier's 
merit  or  feelings.  Men  of  his  own 
profession  will  admire  the  courage 
of  Standish,  his  promptitude  and  de- 
cision in  the  execution  of  his  orders. 


No  one  has  ever  charged  him  either 
with  failure  in  point  of  obedience  or 
of  wantonly  exceeding  the  limits  of 
his  commission.  If  the  arm  of  flesh 
was  necessary  to  establish  the  rights 
and  defend  the  lives  and  property  of 
colonists,  in  a  new  country,  sur- 
rounded with  enemies  and  false 
friends,  certainly  such  a  man  as 
Standish,  with  all  his  imperfections, 
will  hold  a  high  raidv  among  the 
worthies  of  New-England."  See 
Morton's  Memorial,  p.  126,  Bel- 
knap's American  Biography,  ii.  330, 
and  Chronicles  of  Plymouth,  p.  125. 
-  William  Hubbard,  from  whose 
History  of  New-England  this  Chap- 
ter is  taken,  was  born  in  England  in 
1621,  and  came  to  this  country  with 
his  father  in  1635.  He  was  one  of 
the  first  class  that  graduated  at 
Harvard  College,  in  1642,  and  about 
the  year  1657  was  settled  in  the 
ministry  at  Ipswich,  where  he  died 
Sept.  11,  1701,  at  the  age  of  83. 
His  History  of  New-England  was 
completed  in  1680,  to  which  time  it 
is  brought  down,  but  contains  few 


HUBBARD,    THE    HISTORIAN. 


35 


facts  after  1650.  In  1682,  the  Gen- 
eral Court  of  Massachusetts  granted 
him  fifty  pounds  "  as  a  manifestation 
of  thankfulness"  for  his  work.  It 
remained  in  manuscript  till  1815, 
when  it  was  published  by  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Historical  Society  in  the 
I5th  and  16th  volumes  of  their  Col- 
lections. The  manuscript  was  of 
great  use  to  Mather,  Prince,  and 
Hutchinson,  and  until  it  was  printed 
was  held  in  high  estimation  as  an 
original  authority  for  our  early  his- 
tory. But  the  collation  of  it  with 
the  complete  edition  of  Gov.  Win- 
throp's  History  of  New-England, 
published  by  Mr.  Savage  in  1825, 
disclosed  the  source  whence  Hub- 
bard had  derived  his  facts,  and  even 
his  language  through  successive 
pages.  He  seems  to  have  sustained 
the  same  literary  relation  to  Win- 
throp,  that  Secretary  Morton  did  to 
Gov.  Bradford,  that  of  a  close  but 
not  very  accurate  copyist.  A  just 
estimate  of  the  value  of  his  History 
is  given  by  Mr.  Savage  in  his  note 
on  Winthrop,  i.  297. 

The  most  original  and  valuable 
part  of  Hubbard's  History  is  un- 
questionably this  very  Chapter,  in 
which  he  gives  us  a  statement  of 
facts  in  relation  to  the  first  settle- 
ments at  Cape  Ann  and  Salem, 
which  can  be  found  nowhere  else. 
Now  from  whom  did  he  obtain  these 
facts?  Most  probably  from  Roger 
Conant,  the  father  of  the  Colony,  of 
whom  he  was  a  contemporary  and 
neighbour.  Living  at  Ipswich,  he 
must  have  been  acquainted  with  this 
prominent  old  planter,  who  resided 
but  a  few  miles  from  him,  at  Bev- 


erly,  and  who   survived  till    1679.  CHAP. 
Some  of  the  facts  which  he  relates       II. 

he  could  hardly  have  obtained  from  

any  other  som-ce  ;  as  for  instance, 
Mr.  White's  acquaintance  with  Co- 
nant's  brother,  his  procuring  Mr. 
Humphrey  to  write  to  Conant,  and 
his  subsequently  writing  to  him 
himself  "not  to  desert  the  business." 
The  manner  too  in  which  Hubbard 
speaks  of  Conant,  indicates  one  with 
whom  he  was  personally  acquainted, 
and  for  whose  character  and  intel- 
lect he  felt  the  highest  respect.  He 
speaks  of  him  as  "  that  good  man," 
as  "  a  religious,  sober  and  prudent 
gentleman,"  and  in  a  particular 
emergency,  as  '"one  inspired  by  a 
superior  instinct."  In  another  part 
of  his  History  he  mentions  ' '  a 
strange  impression  on  the  mind  of 
Roger  Conant  to  pitch  upon  Naum- 
keag."  Now  the  fact  of  such  "  in- 
spiration" and  "  impression"  could 
have  been  derived  only  from  Co- 
nant's  own  mouth.  We  may  there- 
fore consider  that  in  this  Chapter 
we  have  Roger  Conant's  own  nana- 
tive,  as  taken  down  by  Hubbard  in 
the  conversations  which  he  held  with  ' 
him  when  collecting  the  materials 
for  his  History. 

I  have  copied  this  Chapter  from 
Hubbard's  MS.,  preserved  in  the 
archives  of  the  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society,  and  have  thus  been 
enabled  to  correct  several  errors  in 
the  printed  volume  of  the  History. 
See  Hutchinson's  Mass.  ii.  147,  and 
Farmer's  Memorials  of  the  Gradu- 
ates of  Harvard  College,  pp.  12-17, 
and  Holmes's  Annals  of  America, 
i.  490.  (2ded.) 


THE  COMPANY'S  RECORDS. 


CHAPTER   III. 

RECORDS    OF    THE    GOVERXOR    AXD     COMPANY    OF    THE 
MASSACHUSETTS    BAY    IN    NEW-ENGLAND. 

[Prefixed  to  the  Records  of  the  Company  are  certain  memoranda,  in 
the  handwriting  of  Washburne,  their  first  Secretary,  of  articles  to  be 
procured  and  sent  over  for  the  use  of  the  Plantation  at  Naumkeak,  and  of 
the  new  Colony  to  be  planted  in  Massachusetts  Bay.  They  are  preserved 
here  as  antique  curiosities,  showing  us  how  the  planters  were  furnished 
with  arms,  clothing,  and  provisions.] 

[To  be]  cast  in  to  the  ballast  of  the  ships} 
2  loads  of  chalk, 
10  thousand  of  bricks,^  and 
5  chaldron  of  sea-coals,^ 

Nails, 

Iron,  1  ton, 

Steel,  2  fagots,'* 

Lead,  1  fodder,^ 


1629. 


'  The  names  of  these  ships  were 
the  Talbot,  the  George,  the  Lion's 
Whelp,  the  Four  Sisters,  and  the 
Mayflower.  They  carried  out  Hig- 
ginson  and  his  company,  and  sailed 
in  April  and  May. 

*  To  build  furnaces,  fire-places, 
and  chimnej^s. 

*  For  the  use  of  the  smiths. 


4  A  term  for  a  parcel  of  small 
bars  of  steel,   weighing  120  pounds. 

^  From  the  Dutch  fuder,  a  cart- 
load. It  relates  properly  to  lead, 
and  Ray  says  it  signifies  a  certain 
weight,  viz.  eight  pigs,  or  1600 
pounds.  But  Bailey  and  Dyche 
both  say  that  the  weight  varies  in 
dififerent   places,    in    London    1956 


40  APPAREL    FOR    THE    COLONISTS. 

Red  lead,  1  barrel, 
Salt,  sail-cloth,  copper. 


1629. 


Francis  Johnson.^ 
RapheWhite,  at  corner  of  Philpot  Lane,  for  aqua-vitae.^ 


Apparel  for  100  Men. 

400  pair  of  shoes, 

300  pair  of  stockings,  whereof  200  pair  Irish,  about 

lod.  a  pair,   (Mr.  Deputy,)"   100   pair  of  knit 

stockings,  about  2s.  4d.  a  pair,  (Mr.  Treasurer,)^ 

10  dozen  pair  of  Norwich  garters,^   about  5s.   a 

dozen  pair, 

400  shirts, 

200  suits  doublet  and  hose,  of  leather,  lined  with 
oiled-skin  leather,  the  hose  and  doublet  with 
hooks  and  eyes, 

100  suits  of  Northern  dussens,  or  Hampshire  ker- 
seys, lined,  the  hose  with  skins,  the  doublets 
with  linen  of  Guildford,*  or  Gedlyman  serges, 
25.  10^.  to  3s.  a  yard,  4|  to  5  yards  a  suit,  at 
the  George,  in  Southwark, 

400  bands,'  300  plain  felling  bands,  100  [*^]  bands, 

pounds,  at  Newcastle  2100,  in  Der-  rosette  on  one  side.  See  the  History 
byshire  2400,  sometimes  more,  of  British  Costume,  in  the  Library  of 
sometimes  less,  according  to  the  Entertaining  Knowledge,  xxiv.  275. 
custom  of  the  several  liberties  where  ■•  A  town  in  Surrey,  formerly  eel- 
it  is  melted  or  made.  See  Tyr-  ebrated  for  its  manufactures, 
whitt's  Chaucer,  v.  94,  and  Ray's  '"  The  gi-eat  stiff  ruffs  of  Queen 
North  Country  Words,  p.  31,  Elizabeth's  time  were  exchanged  in 

'  These   are   memoranda   in   the  James's    reign  for  wide   horizontal 

margin.  collars  and  broad  falling  bands.     To 

"  I  suppose  the  Deputy  Governor  these  succeeded  the   small   Geneva 

and  the  Treasurer  were  to  provide  bands,  like  tliose  worn   by  clergy- 

these  arti  les.  men,  which  have  since  been  super- 

^  At  tills  time  the  stockings  were  seded    by   stocks    and    neckcloths, 

gartered  beneath  the  knee,  and  the  See  Britisli  Costume,  pp.  274,  305. 

gjirters  fastened  in  a  large  bow  or  *  Illegible. 


APPAREL    FOR    THE    COLONISTS.  41 

100  waistcoats  of  2;reen  cotton,   bound  about  with  chap. 
°  III. 

red  tape,  

100  leather  girdles,^  1629. 

100  Monmouth  caps,^  about  25.  apiece, 
100  black  hats,  lined  in  the  brims  with  leather, 
500  red  knit  caps,  milled,  about  5c?.  apiece, 
200  dozen  hooks  and  eyes,  and  small  hooks   and 
eyes  for  mandilions, 
16  dozen  of  gloves,  whereof  12  dozen  calf's  leath- 
er, and  2  dozen  tanned  sheep's  leather,  and  2 
dozen  kid. 

Ells  sheen ^  linen  for  handkerchers, 
I  a  deker^  of  leather,  of  the  best  bend^  leather, 
50  mats  to  lie  under  50  beds  aboard  ship, 
50  rugs, 

50  pair  of  blankets,  of  Welsh  cotton, 
100  pair  of  sheets, 
50  bed-ticks  and  bolsters,  with  wool   to  put  them 
in,  Scotch  ticking, 

Linen  for  towels,  and  tablecloths,  and  napkins, 
Sea  chests, 
3  c.  Poppering  hops,  and  1  c.  particular. 


16th  March.     Agreed  the  apparel  to  be  100  man-    Mr. 
dilions,^    lined    M'ith    white    cotton,    12d.    a    yard, 

*  Girdles  performed  the  office  of  ^  Fair,  shining. 

our  modern  suspenders.  "•  A  dicker  is  a  term  used  by  the 

'  "  The  best  caps,"'  says  Fuller,  tanners  to   express  a  quantity  con- 

"  were  formerly  made  at  Monmouth ,  sisting  of  ten   hides.     See    Bailey 

where    the    Cappers'"    Chapel   doth  and  Dyche. 

still  remain."     They  were  formerly  '"  Sole  leather,  cut  from   the  best 

much  worn,  particularly  by  soldiers,  part    of    the    hide  —  a      technical 

"  Wearing  leeks  ia  their  Monmouth  word,  still   in  use    among   leather- 
caps."  dealers. 
Shakspeare's  Hen.  V.  Act  iv.  Sc.  7,  ®  A    soldier's   garment,    a   loose 
Fuller's  Worthies,  ii.  116,  (4to  ed.)  cassock  or  sack    covering  the  whole 


42  SUPPLIES    FOR    THE    COLONY. 

CHAP,  breeches    and   waistcoats,    and    100    leather    suits, 

TTT  '  ' 

— —  doublets   and  breeches,    of  oiled  leather,   100  pair 
1629.  breeches  of  leather,^  drawers  to  serve  to  wear  with 
both  their  other  suits. 

[Send  to]  Sherbrooke  by  to-morrow  in  the  after- 
noon. 

Proclamation  to  hinder  the  selling  guns  and  gun- 
powder. 

[Nujmber  of  cattle, 

[Have]  Blood  here  to  help  them.^ 


To  provide  to  send  for  New-England. 

Ministers, 

Patent,  under  seal, 

A  Seal,=^ 

Men  skilful  in  making  of  pitch,  of  salt, 

Vine-planters, 

Wheat,  rye,  barley,  oats,  a  hogshead  of  each  in 
the  ear  ;  beans,  pease,  stones  of  all  sorts  of  fruits,  as 
peaches,  plums,  filberts,  cherries ;  pear,  apple, 
quince  kernels  ;  pomegranates,  woad  seed,  saffron 
heads,  liquorice  seed,  (roots  sent,  and  madder  roots,) 
potatoes,   hop  roots,   hemp  seed,  flax  seed,  against 


of  the   body,   and   usually  without         '  On   account  of   its    durability, 

sleeves.  leather  was  for  a  long  time  the  ordi- 

"  Thus  put  he  on  his  arming  truss,  fair  nary   material   for    clothing  among 

shoes  upon  his  feet,  the    common    people   of    England. 

Ahoui  him  a  mandilion,  that  did  with  1''he    leather    breeches   have    come 

huiionsmeet,  down  to  our  owTi  day. 
Oi   purple,   large,   and   lull  ot    lolds,  ■  •      i. 

ciul'd  with  a  warmful  nap,  ^  Memoranda,  written  m  the  mar- 

A  garment  that  'gainst  cold  in  nights  gin. 

did  soldiers  use  to  wrap."  "   3  ^j^jg  gg,^]  ^.^g  ^f  silver,  as  will 

Chapman's  Homer,  Iliad,  book  x.  ;  be  seen  hereafter. 
Hist,  of  British  Costume,  p.  267. 


CANNON    FOR    THE    COLONY.  43 

winter,  coneys,  currant  plants,  tame  turkeys,  shoes,  chap. 

linen  cloth,  woollen  cloth,  pewter  bottles,  of  pints 

and  quarts,  brass  ladles  and  spoons,   copper  kettles,  i^^Q. 
of  [illegible]  making,  without  bars  of  iron  about  them, 
oiled  skins  of  leather,  madder  seeds. 


2M  February,  1628. 

This  day,  delivered  a  warrant  to  Mr.  George  Har-  Feb 
wood,  Treasurer,  to  pay  [Mr.]  Barnard  Michell  one 
hundred  pounds,  in  part  of  the  freight  of  the  [Abi- 
gail,] Henry  Gauden,  master,  from  Weymouth  to 
Nahumkeke,  the  goods  shipped  [per  bill]  of  lading 
dated  20th  June  last,  being  per  bill  of  lading  46^ 
tons  [of  goods,]  beside  the  charge  of  Captain  John 
Endecott,  his  wife,  and  [blank]  persons  of  his  com- 
pany, their  passage  and  diet. 

26/A.     William  Sherman  hath  liberty  for  fourteen     26 
days  to  fetch   his  vines  in  Northampton,  near  [torn 
off]  ferry. 

2Qth  February,  1628. 

Necessaries  conceived  meet  for  our  intended  voyage  for 
New- England,  to  be  prepared  forthwith. 
For  our  five  pieces  of  ordnance,  long  since  bought 
and  paid  for,  Mr.  John  Humphry  is  entreated  and 
doth  promise  forthwith  to  cause  them  to  be  delivered 
to  Samuel  Sharpe,  who  is  to  take  care  for  having  fit 
carriages  made  for  them. 

Arms  for  100  Men. 

3  drums,  to  each  two  pair  of  heads, 
2  ensigns, 


H 


ARMS    FOR    THE    COLONY. 


2  partisans/  for  captain  and  leftenant, 

3  halberds,^  for  three  sergeants, 

80  bastard  muskets,  with  snaphances,^  four  foot   in 
the  barrel,  without  rests, 
6  long  fowling-pieces,   with  musket  bore,  six  and 
a  half  foot  long, 

4  long  fowling-pieces,  with  bastard  musket  bore, 
five  and  a  half  foot  long, 

10  full  muskets,  four  foot  barrel,  with  matchcocks 

and  rests,'* 
90  bandoleers,^  for  the  muskets,  each  with  a  bullet 

10  horn  flasks,  for  the  long  fowling-pieces,  to  hold 
two  pound  apiece,  and 
100  swords,  and  belts, 
60  corselets,*^  and  60  pikes,  20  half  pikes. 


'  A  variety  of  the  pike  or  spon- 
toon,  introduced  in  Henry  the 
Eighth's  time.  Its  blade  was 
broader  than  that  of  the  pike,  and 
that  part  of  it  which  was  near  the 
staff  was  formed  in  the  manner  of  a 
crescent.  It  is  still  carried  by  the 
yeomen  of  the  guard. 

"  Shall  I  strike  at  it  with  my  partisan  ?" 

Shakspeare,  Hamlet,  Act  i.   Sc.  1  ; 
See  Meyrick,  ii.  285. 

^  A  weapon  consisting  of  a  staff 
about  five  feet  long,  with  a  steel 
head,  in  the  shape  of  an  axe,  for- 
merly carried  by  the  sergeants  of 
foot  and  artillery.  See  Crabbe's 
Technological  Dictionary. 

^  The  snaphance  was  the  Dutch 
name  for  the  firelock.  It  differed 
from  the  modern  firelock  in  the  ham- 
mer not  forming  the  covering  of  the 
pan.     See  Meyrick,  iii.  101. 

*  On  account  of  the  heaviness  of 
the  long  matchlock  muskets,  a  rest 
was  usL'd,  wliich  was  a  staff,  on  the 
top  of  which  was  a  kind  of  fork  to 
receive  tlie  musket,  and  at  the  bot- 


tom a  sharp  iron  ferule,  for  sticking 
it  into  the  ground.    Meyrick.  iii.  41. 

*  Bandoleers  were  little  cylindri- 
cal wooden  boxes,  covered  with 
leather,  each  containing  one  charge 
of  powder  for  a  musket,  to  facilitate 
the  loading  of  the  piece.  Twelve  of 
them  were  suspended  to  a  belt  worn 
over  tlie  left  shoulder ;  and  at  the 
bottom  of  the  belt,  at  the  right  hip, 
were  hung  the  bullet  bag  and  prim- 
ing box.  These  little  cases  were 
sometimes  made  of  tin.  1  hey  were 
used  till  the  close  of  the  I7th  centu- 
ry, when  they  were  superseded  by 
the  cartridge  and  cartridge-box. 
See  Meyrick,  iii.  77,  British  Cos- 
tume, p.  273. 

*  "A  kind  of  armour  chiefly  worn 
by  pikemen.  Strictly  speaking,  the 
word  corselet  means  only  that  part 
which  covered  the  co7'se  or  body ; 
but  was  generally  used  to  express 
the  whole  suit,  under  the  term  of  a 
corselet  furnis^hed  or  complete,  which 
included  the  head-piece  and  gorget, 
the  back  and  breas  s,  with  skirts  of 
iron,  called  tasses,  hanging  over  the 


Feb. 
26. 


ARMS    FOR    THE    COLONY.  45 

10  u        1  J       ^8  barrels  for  the  fort,  chap. 

Iz  barrels  powder,  <  '  iii. 

(4       "      for  small  snot,  .--^-. 

Shot,  1  lb.  to  a  bandoleer,  ^629, 

8  pieces  of  land  ordnance  for  the  fort,  whereof  5 

already  provided, 

,     ^  2  demi-culverins,^  30  cwt.  apiece, 

(  3  sakers,^  each  weighing  25  cwt. 

.  -J    ^  1  whole  culverin,^  as  lona;  as  may  be, 

to  provide  <  •         i    i  J       ' 

t  2  small  pieces,  iron  drakes, 

For  great  shot,  a  fit  proportion  to  the  ordnance, 

A  seine,  being  a  net  to  fish  with. 


beer. 


For  the  Talbot, "^  if  100  passengers  and  35  mariners, 
three  months,  the  mariners  accounted  double.^ 

45  tuns  beer,  whereof  6  tuns  4^. 
39  tuns  6s. 
Malaga  and  Canary  casks,  16s.  a  tun, 
6  tuns  of  water, 
12  m.  of  bread,  after  |  c.  to  a  man, 
22  hogsheads  of  beef, 

40  bushels  pease,  a  peck  a  man  the  voyage, 
20  bushels  oatmeal, 
4  c.  haberdine,'^   62  cople  each  c.  —  (each  cople 
makes  11  pound)  —  and  half  a  pound  a  man  per 
day, 
8  dozen  pounds  of  candles, 

thighs."      Mejnrick's   Ancient   Ar-  ^  A  cannon  5i  inches  in  the  bore, 

mour,  iii.  21.  weightof  metal  4500  pounds,  weight 

'■  A  piece  of  cannon  four  inches  of  shot  17.J  pounds, 

in  diameter  in  the  bore,  and  carrying  ■*  The  Talbot  was  a  ship  of  300 

a  ball  of  94  pounds.     See  INIepick,  tons. 

iii.  65,  70.  s  Because  they  must  be  supplied 

*  A  smaller  piece  of  artillery,  dh  with  provisions  for  the  return  voyage, 

inches  in  the  bore,  weight  of  shot  ^  Salted  cod-fish. 
54  pounds.     Me}Tick,  ibid. 


46  STORES    FOR    THE    SHIPS. 


CHAP.      2  tierces  of  beer  vineo:ar, 

1|  bushels  mustard  seed, 

1629.    20  gallons  oil   Gallipoli,^  or  Majorca,  two  quarts  a 
2q;  man, 

2  firkins  of  soap, 

2  rundlets  vSpanish  wine,  10  gallons  apiece, 
4  thousand  of  billets,^ 
10  firkins  of  butter, 
10  c.  of  cheese, 
20  gallons  aqua-vitae. 


26th  February,  1628. 
Agreed  with  John  Hewson  to  make  eight  pair  of 
welt  neat's  leather  shoes,  crossed  on  the  outside  with 
a  seam,  to  be  substantial,  good  over  leather,  of  the 
best,  and  two  soles,  the  inner  sole  of  good  neat's 
leather,  and  the  outer  sole  of  tallowed  backs, '^  to  be 
two  pair  of  ten  inches,  two  pair  of  eleven  inches, 
two  pair  of  twelve  inches,  and  two  pair  of  thirteen 
inches'  size. 

The  proportions  we  intend  is, 
1  of  10  inches,  ^ 
3  of  11  inches,  I 
3  of  12  inches,  [  ' 

1  of  13  inches,  J 

2  of   8  inches, 
2  of    9  inches, 

And  he  to  refer  it  to  the  Company  whether  to  allow 
Id.  per  pair  more. 

*  Gallipoli,  a  sea-port  in  the  king-         '^  Of  firewood,  to  be  used  on  ship- 

dom  of  Naples,  on  the  Gulf  of  Ta-  board. 

ranto,  is  the  chief  mart  of  the  oil         ^  Hides,  dressed  with  tallow  in- 
produced  in  this  region.  stead  of  oil. 


25.  4d. 


MONOPOLY    OF    SALT.  47 


2d  March,  1628.     Present, 

The  Governor,  *  Mr.  Adams, 

The  Deputy,  Mr.  Noell,  1629. 

Mr.  Wright,  Mr.  Whetcombe,  March 

2. 
Mr.  Vassall,  Mr.  Perry, 

Mr.  Harwood,  Mr.  Huson.* 

Mr.  Coulson, 

This  day  James  Edmonds,  a  sailor,  fisher,  and  a 
cooper,  was  propounded  to  serve  the  Company  ;  as 
also  Sydrach  Miller,  a  cooper  and  a  cleaver  ;  who 
demanding  £45  for  him  and  his  man  the  first  year, 
<£50  a  year  the  second  and  third  year,  and  Ed- 
monds's demands  being  £10  the  first  year,  £lb  the 
second,  and  c£20  the  third  year,  both  held  too  dear 
for  the  Company  to  be  at  charges  withal. 

Also,  for  Mr.  Malbon,  it  was  propomided,  he  hav- 
ing skill  in  iron  works,  and  willing  to  put  in  £25  in 
stock,  it  should  be  accepted  as  £50,  and  his  charges 
to  be  borne  out  and  home  from  New-England  ;  and 
upon  his  return,  and  report  what  may  be  done  about 
iron  works,  consideration  to  be  had  of  proceeding 
therein  accordingly,  and  further  recompense,  if  there 
be  cause  to  entertain  him. 

Touching  making  of  salt,  it  was  conceived  fit  that 
commodity  should  be  reserved  for  the  general  stock's 
benefit  ;  yet  with  this  proviso,  that  any  planter  or 
brother  of  the  Company  should  htive  as  much  as  he 
might  any  way  have  occasion  to  make  use  of,  at  as 
cheap  rate  as  themselves  could  make  it  ;   provided, 

'  "  This  is  the  first  account  of  those  offices  by  Tirtue  of  their  pa- 
names  set  down  at  their  meetings,  tent  from  the  New-England  Coun- 
in  the  Massachusetts  Court  Records.  ciL"  Prince,  p.  251.  What  precedes 
By  Governor  is  doubtless  meant  Mr.  seems  to  be  the  notes  and  memoran- 
Cradock,  and  by  Deputy  Governor,  da  of  Washburne,  the  Secretary. 
Mr.  Goff;  who  seem  to  be  chose  to 


48 


THE    BOSTON    MEN. 


1629. 

March 
2. 


CHAP,  if  the  Company  be  not  sufficiently  provided  for  them- 

selves,  then  particular  men  may  have  liberty  to  make 

for  their   own   expense  and  use  any  way,  but  not  to 
transport  nor  sell. 

Touching  John  Oldham,^  the  Governor  was  order- 
ed to  confer  with  him  upon  any  indifferent  course 
that  might  not  be  prejudicial  to  the  Company. 

Also,  it  being  propounded  by  Mr.  Coney ,^  in  behalf 
of  the  Boston  men,^  (whereof  divers  had  promised, 


'  Oldham,  after  his  expulsion  from 
Plymouth  with  Lyford  in  the  sum- 
mar  of  1624,  retired,  as  we  have 
seen,  to  Nantasket.  Returning  in 
the  spring  of  1025,  without  leave, 
he  was  ejected  a  second  time  from 
the  colony  in  a  suinmaiy  and  igno- 
minious manner.  After  declining, 
the  same  year,  the  invitation  of  the 
Dorchester  adventurers,  to  trade  for 
them  whh  the  Indians,  he  sailed  in 
1626  for  Virginia,  and  on  his  voyage 
being  delivered  from  extreme  dan- 
ger, he  becomes  penitent,  and  "  after 
carries  himself  fairly  to  us,"  says 
Bradford,  "  and  we  give  him  liberty 
to  come  and  converse  with  us  when 
he  pleases."  After  this  reconcilia- 
tion, so  great  was  the  confidence  of 
the  Plymouth  people  in  him,  that  in 
June,  1628,  when  Morton,  the  rioter 
of  Merry  Mount,  was  arrested  and 
sent  prisoner  to  England,  he  was 
committed  to  Oldham's  custody.  At 
this  time  he  seems  to  be  prosecuting 
his  own  private  affairs.  See  Prince's 
Annals,  pp.  231,  230, 252  ;  Morton's 
Memorial,  p.  120  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
iii.  63. 

^  This  was  probably  the  "  Mr. 
Thomas  Cony,"  who  at  an  assembly 
held  at  the  Guildhall  of  the  borough 
of  Boston  on  the  22d  July,  1633, 
communicated  to  the  mayor  and  bur- 
gesses an  intimation  from  the  Bishop 
of  Lincoln,  that  Mr.  John  Cotton, 
late  vicar  of  Boston,  had  resigned 
his  vicarage  on  the  8th  of  that  month. 
For  this  as  well  as  for  many  other 
new   facts  illustrative  of  our  early 


annals,  we  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Sa- 
vage's filial  pilgrimage  to  our  father- 
land, the  fruits  of  which  he  has  em- 
bodied in  his  delightful  Gleanings 
for  New-England  History,  contained 
in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  243-348. 
See  particularly  page  343. 

^  It  is  gratifying  to  find  "  the  Bos- 
ton men"  so  early  engaged  in  the 
work.  "  Lincolnshire,"  says  Hutch- 
inson, "contributed  greatly,  and 
more  of  our  principal  families  derive 
their  origin  from  thence  than  from 
any  part  of  England,  unless  the  city 
of  London  be  an  exception."  Among 
the  prominent  Boston  men,  who 
came  to  this  country,  besides  Cotton, 
were  Thomas  Dudley,  Richard  Bel- 
lingham,  John  Leverett,  with  his 
father  Thomas,  William  Codding- 
ton,  and  Atherton  Hough.  The  three 
first  named  were  governors  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  Coddington  was  the 
father  and  governor  of  Rhode  Island. 
Hough  was  mayor  of  the  borough  in 
]628,Bellingham  was  recorder  from 
1625  to  1633,  and  Thomas  Leverett 
was  an  alderman.  The  Rev.  Sam- 
uel Whiting,  who  had  been  minister 
of  Skirbeck  church,  less  than  a  mile 
from  Boston,  and  was  afterwards 
the  minister  of  Lynn,  in  our  Colony, 
had  a  father  and  brother  both  inay- 
ors  of  the  borough.  Under  these 
circumstances  it  is  not  surprising 
that  the  name  of  the  native  place  of 
so  numy  of  the  prominent  colonists 
sliould  have  been  given  to  the  pen- 
insula which  even  then  to  their  im- 
agination "  presaged  some  suraptu- 


THEIR    PROPOSITION    ACCEPTED. 


49 


March 
2. 


though  not  in  our  book  underwritten,  to  adventure  chap. 

^£400  in  the  joint  stock,)   that  now  their  desire  was 

that  ten  persons  of  them  might  underwrite  £25^  a^^^^- 
man  in  the  joint  stock,  they  withal  promising  with 
these  ships  to  adventure  in  their  particular  above 
£250  more,  and  to  provide  able  men  to  send  over 
for  managing  the  business  ;  which,  though  it  be  pre- 
judicial to  the  general  stock,  by  the  abatement  of  so 
much  money  thereout,  yet  appearing  really  to  con- 
duce more  to  the  good  of  the  Plantation,  which  is 
most  desired,  it  was  condescended  unto. 


ous  city."  It  was  probably  for  this 
reason,  and  not  for  the  one  common- 
ly assigned,  viz.  ont  of  respect  for 
Mr.  Cotton,  who  did  not  come  over 
till  three  years  afterwards,  that  at  a 
Court  of  Assistants  held  at  Chavles- 
towni,  Sept.  7,  1630,  it  was  "ordered 
that  Trimountain  shall  be  called 
Boston."  See  Hutchinson's  Hist, 
of  Mass.  i.  18,  INIass.  Hist.  Coll. 
xxviii.  343,  and  Snow's  History  of 
Boston,  pp.  32,33. 

Boston  is  a  borough  town  in  Lin- 
colnshire, 116  miles  north  of  Lon- 
don, and  26  south-east  of  Lincoln, 
situated  on  both  sides  of  the  river 
Witham,  five  miles  from  the  sea. 
It  sends  two  members  to  Parhament, 
The  parish  church  in  which  Cotton 
preached,  built  in  1309,  is  382  feet 
m  length  by  99  in  breadth,  and  the 
tower  is  262  feet  in  height,  and  re- 
sembles that  of  the  cathedral  at 
Antwerp.  It  forms  a  conspicuous 
landmark  for  sailors,  being  visible  at 
sea  for  forty  miles.  "  Among  the 
parish  churches  of  England,"  said 
Edward  Everett,   in    his   beautiful 


Address  at  Plymouth,  Dec.  22,1845, 
"  there  is  not  a  finer  than  the  church 
at  Boston,  almost  a  cathedral  in  size, 
and  unsurpassed  by  any  of  its  class 
in  the  beauty  of  its  architecture.  I 
went  many  miles  out  of  my  way  to 
behold  this  venerable  pile  ;  and 
while  I  mused  beneath  its  arches, 
ascended  its  grand  tower,  and  stood 
before  the  altar  at  which  Cotton 
ministered,  I  gained  new  impressions 
of  the  Christian  heroism,  the  spirit- 
ual grandeur  of  the  men,  who  turn- 
ed their  backs  on  all  this  sacred 
grandeur  and  beauty,  as  well  as  on 
all  the  comforts  and  delights  of  civ- 
ilized life,  that  they  might  freely 
worship  God  in  cabins  and-garrets, 
under  exile  and  penury  in  the  old 
world,  and  in  face  of  the  gaunt  ter- 
rors of  this  unsubdued  wilderness." 
See  Thompson's  Hist  of  Boston,  in 
Lincolnshire,  and  the  Parliamentary 
Gazetteer  of  England,  i.  229. 

^  Prince,  quoting  this  record,  page 
254,  says,  X"10  a  man  —  one  of  the 
very  few  errors  that  T  have  detected 
in  the  accurate  Annalist. 


3. 


50  AGREEMENT  WITH  SAMUEL  SHARPE. 

The  M  March,  1628.     Present, 

1629.  The  Governor,  Mr.  Noell, 

March  Mr.  Deputy,  Mr.  Sharpe. 

Mr.   Wright, 

It  was  at  present  debated  how  some  good  course 
might  be  settled  for  the  division  of  the  lands,  and 
that  all  men  intending  to  go  in  person  or  to  send 
over,  might  underwrite  and  seal  some  instrument  to 
be  made,  whereby  every  man  to  be  tied  to  such  Or- 
ders as  shall  be  agreed  upon  here  ;  and  that  a  copy 
of  this  agreement  be  sent  to  Dorchester,^  for  all  men 
to  underwrite  and  seal,  that  intend  to  take  their 
passage  in  the  Lion's  Whelp,^  or  else  order  to  be 
taken  that  the  ships  proceed  without  them. 

Mr.  Samuel  Sharpe,  wdth  whom  there  hath  been 
an  agreement  made  in  the  behalf  of  the  Company  to 
give  him  £10  per  year  for  three  years,  to  have  the 
oversight  of  the  ordnance  to  be  planted  in  the  fort 
to  be  built  upon  the  Plantation,  and  what  else  may 
concern  artillery  business  to  give  his  advice  in  ;  but 
for  all  other  employments  was  left  to  be  entertained 
by  any  particular  brethren  of  the  Company,  w^ho  for 
other  occasions  had  entertained  him  already,  and 
held  not  fit  to  be  at  further  charge  in  that  kind. 
The  said  Sharpe  is  also  entertained  to  oversee  the 
[servants]   and  employments  of  certain   particular^ 

^  Dorchester,  which  may  be  con-  Church,  in   which  patriarch  "White 

sidered  the  cradle  of  the  Massachu-  preached,  was  ])nlled  do^\ii  in  1824, 

setts  Colony,  is  a  borough  town  in  and  a  new  churcii   erected  on  the 

Dorsetshhe,  on  the   soutliern  bank  site.     See  Pari.   Gaz.  of  England, 

of  the  river  Fronie,   120  miles  from  i.  602. 

London,  and  having  in  1831  a  popu-  "  The  Lion's  Whelp  was  a  vessel 

lation  of  3033.     It  is  under  the  gov-  of  120  tons. 

ernment  of  a  mayor,  and  sends  two  ^  Sharpe  was  Cradock's  agent,  as 

members    to    Parliament.      Trinity  will  be  seen  hereafter. 


SIR    WILLIAM    BRERETON.  51 

men  of  the  Company.     But  for  the  general,^  present-  ^^jf^- 

ed  a  bill    for    three  drums    and   other   particulars,  

amounting  to  five  pounds,  nineteen  shillings  ;  which  1629. 
the  Treasurer  hath  order  to  pay. 


The  bth  March,  1628.     Present,  March 

5. 

The  Governor,  Mr.  Wright, 

Mr.  Deputy,  Mr.  Nowell, 

Mr.  Treasurer,  Mr.  White, 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  Whetcombe. 
Capt.  Venn, 

A  new  proposition  being  made  in  the  behalf  of 
Mr.  Oldham  to  be  entertained  by  this  Company,  it 
was  deferred  to  further  consideration. 

Also,  John  Washburne  being  propounded  for  Sec- 
retary to  the  Company,  it  was  conceived  fit  to  en- 
tertain him,  but  deferred  till  another  [time.] 

A  proposition  being  made  by  Sir  William  Brere- 
ton^  to  the  Governor,  of  a  patent  granted  him  of 

^  The  general  stock,  the  Compa-  into  the  main  land  northeast   from 

ny"s  concern.  the  said  cape  Nahant."     Now  the 

^  Captain  Robert  Gorges,  son  of  grant  made  by  the  Plymouth  Coun- 

Sir  Ferdinando,   obtained  a  patent  cil  to  the  Massachusetts  Company, 

from  the  Council  of  Pl\-mouth,  dated  JNIarch  19,  lfi28,  covered  this  same 

Dec.  13,  1622,  ten  miles  in  breadth  territory,  and  also  the  tract  granted 

and  thirty  miles  into  the  land,  on  the  by  John  Gorges  to  John  Oldham  ; 

northeast  side  of  ^lassachusettsBay.  and  hence  the  disputes  of  the  Com- 

On  the  death  of  Robert,  his  patent  pany  with  Brereton  and  Oldham.    It 

descended  to  his  brother  John,  who  appears  that  Brereton  sent  over  sev- 

by  a  deed  dated  Jan  10,  1029,  con-  eral  famihes  and  servants,  who  pos- 

reyed  to    Sir  AVilHam  Brereton,  of  sessed  and  improved  large  tracts  of 

Handforth,  in  the  county  of  Chester,  the    said    land,    and   made  several 

Bart.,  and  his  heirs,  "  all  the  land  in  leases.     He   seems    to    have    been 

breadth  Ijing  from  the  east  side  of  preparing  to  come  over  himself,  but 

Charles  river  to  the  easterly  part  of  on  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  wars, 

the  cape  called   Nahant,  and  all  the  taking  the   popular  side,  he   found 

lands  lying  in  length  twenty  mUes  employment  in  the  Long  Parliament 

northeast  into  the   main  land  from  and  the  aimy,  and  was  at  the  head 

the  mouth  of  the  said  Charles  river,  of  the  forces  that  reduced  Chester, 

lying  also   in  length  twenty  miles  See  Mass.  Archives,  Lands,  i.  1  ; 


52  JOHN    PRATT,  THE    SURGEON. 

CHAP,  lands  in  the  Massachusetts  Bay  by  Mr.  John  Gorges, 
- — —  and  that  if  this  Company  would  make  him  a  promise, 
^^^^-  so  as  he  consent  to  underwrite  with  this  Company, 
5^.^    it  might  not  be  prejudicial   to  his  patent,  it  was  re- 
solved this  answer  should  be  given  him,  namely,  that 
if  he  please  to  underwrite  with  us  without  any  con- 
dition   whatsoever,   but    to    come    in  as   all    other 
adventurers  do,  he  should  be  welcome  upon  the  same 
conditions  that  we  have. 

A  proposition  being  made  to  entertain  a  surgeon 
for  the  Plantation,  Mr.  [blank]  Pratt ^  was  propound- 
ed as  an  able  man,  upon  these  conditions,  namely, 
that  c£40  should  be  allowed  him,  viz.  for  his  chest 
<£25,  the  rest  for  his  own  salary  for  the  first  year, 
provided  he  continues  three  years,  the  Company  to 
be  at  charge  of  transporting  his  wife  and  a  [servant,] 
and  to  have  c£20  a  year  for  the  other  two  years,  and 
to  build  him  a  house  at  the  Company's  charge,  and 
to  allot  him  a  hundred  acres  of  ground.  But  if  he 
stay  but  one  year,  then  the  Company  to  be  at  charge 


Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  6,  IS  ;  Ilaz-  says,  "  This  man  was  above  sixty 
ard's  State  Papers,  i.  152;  and  Mass.  years  old,  an  experienced  surgeon, 
Hist.  Coll.  xxvi.  75.  who  had  lived  in  New-England 
'  Pratt's  name  was  John.  He  many  years,  and  was  of  the  first 
settled  at  Newtown,  or  Cambridge,  church  at  Cambridge  in  Mr.  Hook- 
but  removed  to  Connecticut  in  1636.  er's  time,  and  had  good  practice, 
In  Nov.  1635,  he  was  cited  before  and  wanted  nothing.  But  he  had 
the  Court  of  Assistants  for  a  letter  been  long  discontented,  because  his 
which  he  had  written  to  England,  employmeut  was  not  so  profitable  to 
"  wherein  he  raised  an  ill  report  of  himself  as  he  desired,  and  it  is  like 
this  country."  He  made  an  e(|uivo-  he  feared  lest  he  should  fall  into 
cal  and  rather  unsatisfactory  a[)olo-  want  in  his  old  age,  and  therefore 
gy,  which  is  printed  at  lenglh  in  he  would  needs  go  back  into  Eng- 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xvii.  126.  In  land,  (for  surgeons  were  then  in 
Nov.  1041,  he  sailed  from  Boston  great  request  there  by  occasion  of  the 
witli  his  wife,  for  Malaga,  in  a  new  wars,)  but  God  took  him  away  child- 
ship  of  400  tons,  which  was  lost  on  less."  See  Savage's  Whithrop,  i. 
the  coast  of  Spain,  and  they  were  173,  ii.  23!),  and  Hutchinson's  Col- 
both  drowned.     Governor  Winthrop  leclion  of  Papers,  p.  IdO. 


THOMAS  GRAVES,  THE  ENGINEER.  53 

of  his  bringing  back  for  England,  and  he  to  leave  his  chap. 
servant  and  the  chest  for  the  Company's  service.         • — ^ 

Agreed  with  Robert  Morley,  servant  to  Mr.  An-  1629. 
drew  Mathewes,  late  barber  surgeon,  to  serve  the  March 
Company  in  New-England,  for  three  years  ;  the  first 
year  to  have  20  nobles,^  the  second  year  [30,  and 
the  third]  year  20  marks,^  to  serve  as  a  barber  and 
a  surgeon,  on  all  occasions  belonging  to  his  calling 
to  any  of  this  Company  that  are  planters,  or  their 
servants  ;  and  for  his  chest  and  all  in  it,  whereof  he 
hath  given  an  inventory,  [if,  on  the]  sight  of  it,  it  be 
approved,  five  pounds  is  [to  be  allowed]  and  paid  to 
him  for  it,  and  the  same  to  be  fo[rthwith  paid.] 

The  business  concerning  the  division  of  the  lands, 
propounded  the  3d  of  this  month,  w^as  again  taken 
into  consideration,  and  it  w^as  resolved  that  Captain 
Waller,  Captain  Venn,  Mr.  Eaton,  and  Mr.  Adams, 
Mr.  Whetcombe,  Mr.  Wright,  Mr.  Vassall,  Mr. 
Treasurer,  with  the  Governor,  and  Deputy,  shall 
consider  seriously  of  the  business,  calling  to  their 
assistance  Mr.  Graves,  Mr.  Sharpe,  or  any  other, 
and  to  set  down  in  writing  what  course  they  con- 
ceive fit  to  be  held  herein,  whereby  an  equality  may 
be  held,  to  avoid  all  contention  'twixt  the  adventur- 
ers ;  and  Tuesday  morning  appointed  for  the  com- 
mittees to  meet  about  this  business. 

[At]  this  Court  also  Mr.  Thomas  Graves  was  pro- 
pounded to  go  over  with  the  ships  now  bound  for 
New-England,  to  have  his  charges  borne  out  and 
home  ;   and  being  a  man  experienced  in  iron  works, 


'  A.  noble  is  an  old  English  coin,     135.  id.,  just  twice  as  much  as  the 
worth  about  6s.  8d.  noble. 

'^  A  mark  is  an  old  coin,    worth 


54  ARMS    FOR    THE    COLONY. 

CHAP,  in  salt  works,  in  measuring  and  surveying  of  lands, 
and  in  fortifications,  &c.,  in  lead,  copper,  and  alum 
mines,  having  a  charge  of  wife,  five  children,  a  man 
and  maid-servant  ;  after  some  conference  with  him, 
he  tendering  his  employment,  to  go  and  return  with 
one  of  our  ships,  to  the  Company's  discretion  for  his 
salary  in  that  time,  it  was  thought  fit  that  he  should 
consider  'twixt  this  and  to-morrow  what  to  demand  in 
case  he  do  return  presently  with  the  ships  he  should 
take  his  passage  in  ;  and  what  his  demands  would 
be  if  the  Company  should  continue  him  there,  and 
be  at  charges  of  the  transportation  of  his  wife  and 
family  thither  in  their  next  ships,  if  he  take  liking  to 
continue  in  New-England. 

Mr.  John  Malbon^  being  also  desired  to  be  here, 
after  conference  had  with  him  touching  the  proposi- 
tion made  in  his  behalf  the  2d  of  this  month,  he  was 
wished  to  consider  what  further  proposition  he  would 
make,  that  the  Company  might  take  it  into  consid- 
eration. 


The  6th  March,  1628. 

6.  Agreed  with  Mr.  Thomas  Steevens,  armourer  in 

Buttolph  Lane,  for  twenty  arms,  viz.  corselet,  breast, 
back,  culet,  gorget,  tasses,~  and  head-piece^  to  each, 
varnished  all  black,  with   leathers   and  buckles,   at 


'  Not  Oldham,  as  Felt  lias  it  in  plates,  fastened  to  the  cuirass  with 

his  Annals,  i.  64.  hooks,   and   reaching   down   to  the 

^  Defensive  armour:  the  culct,  or  middle  of  the  thigh.    See  Meyrick's 

guarde  de  reins,  for  the  lower  part  of  Ancient  Armour,   and  Grose's  Mili- 

the  body,  the  gorget  for  the  neck,  tary  Antiquities, 

and   the  tasscs  for  the  front  part  of  ^  The  head-pieces  were  probably 

the  thighs.    These  last  were  append-  jnorions,  circular  scull-caps,  with  a 

ages  to  the  ancient  corselet,  consist-  rim  round  them, 
ing  of  skirts,  made  of  overlapping 


III. 


WASHBURN    CHOSEN    SECRETARY.  55 

.175.  each  armour,  excepting  four  which  are   to  be  chap 
with  close  head-pieces,   and  these  four  armours  at 
245.  apiece,  to  be  delivered   all  by  the   20th  of  this 
month  ;  whereof  one  left  now  for  a  sample, 

Agreed  with  John  Wise,  shoemaker  in  Mark  Lane, 


for 


1  dozen  pair  shoes,  of  tens^ 


3  dozen     " 

a 

of  11 

3  dozen     " 

a 

of  12 

1  dozen  pair 

of  13 

1  dozen  pair 

of    8 

1  dozen  pair 

of    9 

10  dozen  pair, 

to 

be  deli\ 

this  month. 

[>  at  25.  Id.  a  pair, 
I 

J 

>  at  25.  bd.  a  pair, 


The  9th  March,  1628. 

This  day  John  Washborne  is  entertained  for  Secre- 
tary for  one  whole  year,  to  enter  the  courts,  to  keep 
the  Company's  accounts,  to  make  warrant  for  all 
moneys  to  be  brought  in  or  paid  out,  and  to  give  no- 
tice at  every  meeting  of  such  as  are  backward  in  pay- 
ment of  their  subscriptions  ;  as  also  for  all  provision 
to  be  made  ready,  to  call  upon  such  as  have  the 
charge  thereof,  whereby  the  ships  now  bound  for 
New-England^  may  be  despatched  by  the  25th  of  this 
month,  at  furthest.  His  salary  for  this  year  is  to  be 
[torn  off],  he,  in  the  premises  and  the  office  of  a  Sec- 
retary, to  perform  [his]  faithful,  diligent  and  true  en- 
deavours, w^hereunto  [he]  doth  fully  [consent  and] 
agree.        ^  Joiix  Washborne.^ 

'  With  Higginson's  company.  ^  The  origmal  is  Washburne's  own 

signature. 


56  PROVISIONS    FOE,    THE    COLONY. 

CHAP.      Asfreed  with  John  Gace,  of  London,  turner,  for 

III 
— —  forty  bandoleers,^  to  be  made  of  neat's  leather,  broad 

1629.  girdles,   each  with  twelve  charges,   whereof  one  a 

?.^    priming  [box,  the  boxes]  of  wood,  covered  with  black 

leather,  at  25.  apiece,   to  be  delivered  next  meeting, 

the  boxes   to  be  for  bastard  musket  size,  excepting 

ten  for  full  musket  size  ;   and  those  to  be  marked  M, 

the  other  for  bastard  muskets,  B. 

Moreover,  agreed  with  him  for  ten  dozen  of  shov- 
els and  spades,  at  eighteen  shillings  the  dozen,  of 
three  several  sizes,  whereof  the  smallest  proportion 
to  be  of  the  smallest  sizes  ;  and  three  spades  and 
three  shovels  left  here  for  samples. 

This  day  these  things  were  ordered  to  be  provided 

by  these  men,  for  120  men's  provisions. 

,^     „,  TT  (120  Hitches  bacon, 

Mr.  Thomas  Hewson,  {  ^^^      ,,  ., 

(120  gallons  sweet  oil, 

'  150  quarters  of  meal, 

30  quarters  of  pease,  at  265. 

J     15  q'rs  of  groats,  at  45.  full  dried, 

Mr.  Deputy,    ^    20  firkins  of  butter,  175. 

60  quarters  of  malt,  175.  6d. 
30  c.  of  cheese. 


10.  This   10th  March,   1628,  I,   Thomas  Graves,   of 

Gravesend,  in  the  county  of  Kent,  gent.,  and  by  my 
profession  skilful  and  experienced  in  the  discovery 
and  finding  out  of  iron  mines,  as  also  of  lead,  copper, 
mineral  salt,  and  alum,^  in  fortifications  of  all  sorts, 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  place,  in  surveying  of 

'  See  note  on  page  44.  ing  the  Records.     The  word  is  now 

^  Alum.     So  says  Prince,  quot-    obliterated  in  the  MS. 


10. 


Graves's  contract.  57 

buildino-s  and  of  lands,  and  in  measuring  of  lands,  in  chap. 

.    T  .  .  III. 

describing  a  country  by  map,  in  leading  of  water  -^ 

[courses]  to  proper  uses  for  mills  or  other  uses,  in  1629. 
finding  out  all  sorts  of  limestones  and  materials  for  ^  fn*^^ 
buildings,  in  manufacturing,  &c.,  have  this  present 
day  agreed  to  serve  the  New-England  Company,  and 
in  their  employment  to  take  my  passage  for  New- 
England,  in  such  ship  as  they  shall  appoint  me  ;  and 
during  my  stay  there,  according  to  the  conditions 
hereafter  expressed,  to  do  my  true  and  uttermost 
endeavour,  in  all  or  any  the  particulars  above  men- 
tioned, for  the  most  good  and  benefit  of  the  said 
Company  ;  and  I  do  hereby  faithfully  promise  to  do 
my  uttermost  endeavour  for  the  discovery  of  aught 
that  may  be  beneficial  to  the  Company,  and  not  to 
conceal  aught  from  them  whom  I  shall  be  enjoined  to 
reveal  the  same  unto,  that  may  tend  or  conduce  to 
the  good  and  profit  of  the  said  Company.  Neither 
that  I  shall  ^  or  disclose  aught  that  they  shall  enjoin 
me  to  keep  secret,  to  any  man  whomsoever  ;  but  in 
all  things  to  bend  my  uttermost  skill  and  ability  to 
do  the  Company  the  best,  true,  and  faithful  service  I 
may  or  can  perform. 

In  consideration  whereof,  the  said  Company  are  to 
bear  all  my  charges  by  sea  into  New-England,  toge- 
ther with  my  charges  during  my  stay  in  their  em- 
ployments in  New-England,  and  my  charges  at  sea 
in  my  return  home,  apparel  only  excepted,  which  is 
to  be  always  at  my  own  charge.  And  it  is  agreed 
moreover,  that  from  the  time  of  my  first  landing  in 
New-England,  to  the  time  of  the  return  from  thence 

'  A  word  seems  to  have  been  accidentally  omitted. 


58  GRAVES's    CONTRACT. 

CHAP,  for  London  of  such  ships  as  shall  be  sent  from  Lon- 

III. 
' — —  don  next  after  Michaelmas  next,  and  in  which  I  shall 

^^^^-  take  my  passage  for  London,  that  there  shall  be  al- 
JJ^  lowed  unto  me  five  pounds  for  each  month  that  I 
shall  continue  in  New-England,  as  aforesaid,  for  my 
salary  or  wages,  but  nothing  to  be  allowed  [for]  my 
charges  during  the  time  of  my  being  at  sea  outward 
and  home  ;  with  this  further  proviso,  that  in  case  the 
said  Company,  [after  I]  shall  have  continued  six  or 
eight  months  in  the  country  [aforesaid],  shall  desire 
my  continuance  in  [the  same  for]  three  years  from 
the  time  of  my  f  [irst  arrival],  I  will  and  do  hereby 
[torn  off]  thereof.  [And  the  said  Company,  in  case 
it  be]  their  intent  to  retain  me  in  their  service  to  the 
end  of  three  years,  do  hereby  promise  to  be  at  the 
charge  of  the  transportation  into  New-England  of  my 
wife,  five  children,  a  boy  and  a  maid  servant,  and 
withal  to  build  me  a  convenient  house  for  myself  and 
my  said  family  at  their  charges,  and  thereto  to  assign 
me  one  hundred  acres  of  land,  and  to  have  part 
thereof  planted  at  the  Company's  charge,  against  the 
coming  of  my  family,  whereby  they  may  subsist  ;  till 
I  shall  be  possessed  of  my  family,  to  perform  the 
same,  or  otherwise  to  allow  me  some  competency  of 
necessary  victuals  for  the  subsistence  of  me  and  my 
family  till  the  next  season  of  planting  and  reaping 
after  their  arrival.  And  it  is  further  agreed,  that  if 
I  continue  in  the  Company's  employments  for  three 
years,  the  payment  of  five  pounds  per  month  for  my 
salary  is  to  be  utterly  void ;  and  my  yearly  allowance 
in  money,  from  the  time  of  my  first  arrival  in  New- 
England  to  the  end  of  three  years,  to  be  after  the 
rate  of  fifty  pounds  by  the  year  ;  provided  always, 


GRAVES's    CONTRACT.  59 

that  my  said  family  going  over   as  aforesaid,   there  chap. 

shall  be  such  a  proportion  of  land  allowed  me  for  — 

them  hereafter  as  if  they  had  now  taken  their  passage  i629. 
with  me  in  the  ships  now  bound  for  New-England.  I^q 
And  for  further  recompense  for  my  true  and  faithful 
endeavours  in  the  said  Company's  employments, 
(which  I  do  promise,  with  God's  assistance,  to  per- 
form truly  and  sincerely,  to  the  best  of  my  ability 
and  understanding,)  I  do  and  shall  refer  myself 
wholly  to  the  Company's  discretion,  as  my  true  en- 
deavours and  the  success  thereof,  through  God's 
mercy,  shall  encourage  them  to  do. 

In  witness  of  all  the  premises,  I  have  hereunto  set 
my  hand  and  seal  this  present  10th  day  of  March, 
anno  1628,  in  London. 


Tho.  Graves.^  [Seal.] 


Witness  hereunto, 
George  Harwood, 
John  Venn. 


The  10th  March,  1628.    Present, 

The  Governor,  Mr.  Eaton, 

Mr.  Deputy,  Mr.  Adams, 

Capt.  Venn,  Mr.  Whetcomb, 

Mr.  Treasurer,  Mr.  Hutchins. 
Mr.  Vassall, 

A  proposition  was  made  this  day  by  Samuel  Sharpe, 
who  was  formerly  entertained  to  do  his  endeavour  in 
the  Company's  employments  concerning  artillery 
business,  (as  appeareth  the  3d  of  this  month,)  that 
all  or  the  better  part  of  his  salary  might  be  paid  him 

'  Graves's  signature  is  in  his  own  handwriting. 


60  CHARGES  OF  THE  PATENT. 

CHAP,  now,  to  provide  him  apparel  withal;  and  if  he  should 
happen  to  die  before  he  had  deserved  it,  his  said  ap- 
parel should  satisfy  it.  Upon  debate  whereof,  it  was 
thought  fit  that  twenty  pounds  should  be  paid  him  ; 
and  this  to  be  the  Treasurer's  warrant  for  payment 
thereof,  upon  his  salary  of  <£10  a  year,  for  three 
years  ;  I  say,  twenty  pounds,  to  be  paid  him  pre- 
sently. 

This  day  being  appointed  to  take  into  considera- 
tion touching  the  division  of  the  lands  in  New-Eng- 
land, where  our  first  Plantation  shall  be,  it  was,  after 
much  debate,  thought  fit  to  refer  this  business  to  the 
Governor,  and  a  committee  to  be  chosen  to  that  pur- 
pose to  assist  him  ;  and  whatsoever  they  shall  do 
herein,  that  to  stand  for  good. 

This  day  order  was  given  to  the  Treasurer  for  pay- 
ment of  twenty  pounds  more  to  Mr.  John  Humphry 
towards  charges  of  our  patent  ;^  and  this  to  be  his 
warrant  for  the  payment  thereof. 

Captain  Venn,"  Mr.  Eaton,  Mr.  Samuel  Vassall, 
and  Mr.  Nowell,  and  Mr.  Whetcombe,  or  any  three 
of  them,  are  intreated  once  more  to  confer  with  Mr. 


^  The  patent  had  been  obtained,  as  "  leading  the  city  after  him  in  se- 

by  the  soUcitation  of  Lord  Viscount  ditious  remonstrances."      llutchin- 

Dorchester,  March  4,  1629.     Chal-  son   says,    "he  was  in  the  design 

mers  prints  a  copy  of  the  docket  of  from  the  beginning,  and  intended  to 

the  grant  to  Sir  Henry  Rosewell  and  have  removed,  but  never  did.    Upon 

others,  and  remarks,  "  The  follow-  the  change  of  afl'airs  in  England,  he 

ing   paper    demonstrates  that  what  made  a  figure  tliere,  being  one  of  the 

was  so  strongly  asserted  during  the  members  for  the  city  in   the  Long 

reign  of  Charles  H.,  to  prove  that  Parliament,  and  among  the  most  ac- 

the  Charter  was  surreptitiously  ob-  tivc  in  the  opposition  to  the  Court, 

tained,   is    vmjust."     8ee  page  29,  and  was  one  of  the  King's  judges." 

and    Chalmers's    Political   Annals,  He  was   one  of  the  ten,  Pym  and 

pp.  13G,  117,  148.  Hambden  being  two  others,  whom 

'^  Mr.  John  Venn,  commonly  call-  Charles  charged  with  high  treason, 

ed  Ca])tain  or  Colonel  Venn,  was  a  See  Clarendon's  Hist,  of  the  Pcbel- 

distinguished     citizen    of     London,  lion,  ii.  10,  91,  iii.  018,  (Oxford  ed. 

and  is  commemorated  by  Clarendon  1826),  and  Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  18. 


JOHN  AND  SAMUEL  BROWNE.  61 

John  Oldham   [to  see  what]   accommodation  may*  be  chap. 

.  .        ."  HI. 

made  'twixt  the  Company  and  him,  that  [their  differ-  - — ~ 
ences  may  be  accommjodated.  1629. 


12th  March,  1628.     Present, 

Mr.  Whetco3ib,  Mr.  Treasurer, 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  Nowell. 

John  Browne,  gent.,  and  Mr.  Samuel  Browne,  of  March 
Roxwell,  in  Essex,  [proposing]  to  take  their  passage 
in  the  Company's  ships  for  New-England,  at  their 
own  charge,  and  intending  to  plant  there,  it  is  agreed 
by  these  [present,]  that  for  their  passage  and  diet 
they  shall  pay  five  pounds  [each]  ;  and  that  for  their 
encouragement,  land  shall  be  allotted  to  them  [there] 
as  if  they  had  subscribed  fifty  pounds  in  the  general 
stock,  [and  to  have  the  same]  privileges  as  others 
that  are  in  the  patent  do. 

John  Browne, 
Sa3iuel  Browne.^ 

Richard  Claydon,~  aged  thirty-four  years,  or  there- 
abouts, carpenter,  who  being  desirous  to  transport 
himself,  his  w^ife,  one  daughter  of  [torn  off]  years 
old,  his  sister  of  fourteen  years  old,  his  brother  Bar- 
naby  C[laydon,]  aged  twenty-three  years,  and  his 
brother-in-law  Thomas  Hanscombe,  aged  [torn  off], 
for  New-England,  in  the  Company's  ships,  it  is  pro- 
mised [this]  day,  that  he  being  able  to  furnish  £40 
towards  the  charges  of  him  and  his,  what  shall  be 

^  These  signatures  are    in   their    that  Ckydon  was  of  Bedfordshire, 
own  handwriting.  parish  of  Sutton. 

*  It  appears  from  a  marginal  note, 


62  CLOTHING    FOR    THE    COLONY. 

CHAP,  wanting  the  Company  will  [furnish]  ;  upon  this  con- 
dition, that  upon  their  arrival  in  New-England,  what 
he  shall  be  indebted  to  the  Company  shall  be  paid 
by  the  labor  of  himself,  and  his  two  servants  or  bro- 
thers aforesaid,  allowing  them  all  three  ds.  the  day 
for  so  long  time  [until]  they  have  paid  this  debt, 
and  in  that  time  finding  [these]  three  persons  diet  at 
the  Company's  charge,  and  whilst  [he  is]  earning 
out  this  debt  to  instruct  any  of  the  Company's  ser- 
vants in  the  trade  of  a  ploughwright.  And  there  is 
land  to  be  [allotted]  to  him  and  his,  as  is  usual,  by 
the  Company's  orders,  to  those  that  transport  them- 
selves.    Written  this  12th  March,  1628. 

Richard  Claydon.^ 
Cannot  go  this  voyage. 


The  16ih  March,  1628. 
16.        Bespoken  of  Mr.  Durbridge,  at  25.  Id.  a  pair,  6 
dozen  pair  of  shoes,  to  be  delivered  this  week,  viz. 

(4  pair  delivered.) 

1  dozen  pair  of  tens, 

2  dozen  pair  of  11, 
2  of  12, 
1  dozen  pair  of  13, 


The  16th  March,  1628. 

Bespoke  of  Mr.  Mayo,  at  lOld.  per  yard  for  beds 
and  bolsters, 

20  bedticks,  (Scotch  ticking,  |  broad,)  2tV  long, 
and  1.^  yards  broad,  11  yards  each  bed  and  bolster. 

'  Claydon's    signature,    and    his   "Cannot    go  this  voyage,"  are   in 
his  own  handwriting. 


PROVISIONS    AND    ARMS.  63 

Bespoke  the  day  abovesaid,  of  Robert  Harret,  8  chap. 

dozen  pair  neat's  leather  shoes,  

1  dozen  10  1  .  ^^^^• 

„  ^  .    '     at  25.  Id.  per  pair,  to  be  ffood       March 

3  dozen  11,  1  ,.  ,*        ^»     i     ^i.  is. 

„  ,  -,  r.    >>  liquored  neat  s   leather,  ac- 

3  dozen  12,  f  a-      .    ^x. 

^    ,  ^  „  cordina:  to  the  pattern. 

1  dozen  13,  J  ^  ^ 


Estimate  of  100  men,  charge  of  them  and  their  provi- 
sions, ivith  others  noted, 

100  men,  their  charge,  d£lo  a  man    .     .     .      .£1500 
Freight  of  the  ship  Talbot,  5  months,  <£80 

per  month 400  )    ^r-^ 

Victuals  and  wages  32  men,  ^£70  a  month,  350  ; 

The  Lion's  Whelp  set  to  sea 500 

20  cows  and  bulls,  £4  apiece       ...     80  ^ 

10  mares  and  horses,  £6  apiece         .     .     60  v    610 

Charges  of  these 470  ) 

£3360 


Agreed  with  [illegible]  Churchill  for  100  swords, 
with  [torn  out]  blades,  at  45.  6d.  apiece,  to  have  all 
chapes,^  and  10  short  swords,  at  25.  apiece,  and  Po- 
lonia  hilts,  at  35  4c?.,  as  many  as  we  like,  to  be  de- 
livered within  eight  days. 


Bought  of  Felix  Boreman,  dwelling  in  Fleet  Lane. 
14  swords,   at  45.  6d   apiece  \ 
7    ditto,     at  35.         apiece  >  £4  12s. 
4    ditto,     at  25.         apiece  ) 

25  swords. 


^  Chape  is  the  httle  thin  plate  of  silver,  iron  or  brass,  at  the  point  of 
the  scabbard  of  a  sword. 


64  SUPPLIES    FOR    THE    COLONY. 

Agreed  with  Mr.  Raphe  White,  in  Philpot  Lane/ 
for  12  gallons  aqua-vitse,  2^.  6d.  a  gallon. 

12  sides  of  bacon,  delivered  by  John  Gladwing,  at 
Mr.  Goff 's,  of  74|  stone,  each  stone  8  lbs.,  at  2^.  bd. 
a  stone. 

17th  March,  1628. 
17.        A  warrant  was  made  for  payment  of  .£120  to  Mr. 
Nathaniel  Wright,   for  so  much  paid  by  him  to  Mr. 
Jarvis  Kirk,   Mr.  William  Barkley,  and  Mr.  Robert 
Charlton,  for  the  ship. 

Also,  to  pay  for  iron  and  steel. 

Also,  to  pay  for  buhrs^  to  make  mill- 
stones, 110,  2s.  apiece,  bought  of  Edward 
Casson,  of  London,  merchant  tailor,      .     .£110  0 

14  c.  of  plaster  of  Paris,  ISd.  per  c.        .         110 

And  porterage,  weighing  the  plaster,  and 
casting  out  of  the  buhrs,  12d.  and  23c?.       .  3  0 

£12  4  0 


The  19th  of  March,  1628. 
19^        A  warrant  was  made  for  payment  of  twelve  pounds 
and    twelve  shillings    unto   Mr.  Gawen  Helme   and 
Thomas  Brickhed  for   two  coppers^  for  the  Lion's 
Whelp.     I  say  for  £12  125.  Od. 

1  See  page  40.  an  iron  hoop."    This  stone  abounds 

^  "  This  is  a  hard,  siliceous  stone,  at  Epernay,  in  France.     It  has  also 

remarkable  for  its  cellular  sti-ucture,  been  discovered  within  ten  or  twelve 

containing  always  a  greater  or  less  miles  of  Zanesville,  Ohio,  of  a  qual- 

nuniber  of  irregular  cavities.    Hence  ily  equal  if  not  superior  to  the  best 

its  surface,  however  worn  and  level-  French    buhr,   and    in   great  abun- 

led,  is  always  rough.     This  proper-  dance.     See  Bigelow's  Technology, 

ty  renders  buhrstone  an  invaluable  p.  13,  (ed.  1829,)  and  Dr.  Frederick 

material  for  millstones.     When  it  is  Hall's  Letters  from  the  West,  (1840) 

not  found  of  sufhcient   size  for  this  p.  70. 
use,  small  pieces  of  it  are  fitted  to-        ^  Boilers,  to  cook  in. 
gather,  cemented,  and  bound  with 


FRANCIS    HIGGINSON,    OF    LEICESTER.  65 


The  l^th  of  March,  1628. 
A  warrant   was   made   for  payment  of  eighteen 
pomids  unto  Mr.  [blank]  Browne,  and  is  for  one  bale 


1629. 
March 


of  French  cloth,  for  the  Lion's  Whelp.     I  say  £\Q.     i9. 


The  I9th  of  March,  1628. 
A  warrant  was  made  for  payment  of  twenty-five 
pounds,   fifteen  shillings,  unto  Mr.  John  White,   of 

Redding,   for   thirty  quarters   of  malt,  to  go  in  the 
ships.     I  say  £2b  lbs.  Od. 


23d  of  March,  1628.     Present,^  23. 

The  Governor,  Mr.  Humfrey, 

Mr.  Deputy,  William  Vassall, 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  Whetcomb, 

Mr.  Davenport,  Mr.  Nowell. 
Capt.  Venn, 

At  this  meeting  intimation  was  given  by  Mr.  No- 
Avell,  by  letters  from  Mr.  Isaac  Johnson,  that  one 
Mr.  HiGGESON,  of  Leicester,  an  able  minister,  prof- 
fers to  go  to  our  Plantation  ;  who  being  approved  for 
a  reverend,  grave  minister,  fit  for  our  present  occa- 
sions, it  was  thought  by  these  present  to  entreat  Mr. 
John  Humfry  to  ride  presently  to  Leicester,"  and,  if 
Mr.  Higgeson  may  conveniently  be  had  to  go  this 
present  voyage,  that  he  should  deal  with  him  ;  first, 
if  his  remove  from  thence  may  be  without  scandal  to 
that  people,  and  approved  by  the  consent  of  some  of 
the  best  aifected  among  them,  with  the  approbation 

^  This  line,  torn  off  from  the  top        ^  Leicester  is  97  miles  fromLoa- 
of  the  leaf,  is  restored  from  Prince,     don. 
p.  256. 

5 


66 


ARTHUR    HILDERSHAM. 


1629. 

March 
23. 


CHAP.  ofMr.  Hildersham/ of  Ashby-de-la-Zouch;  secondly, 
-^~  that  in  regard  of  the  shortness  of  the  time,  the  Com- 
pany conceive  it  would  be  best,  if  he  so  thought 
good,  to  leave  his  wife  and  family  till  towards  Bar- 
tholomew, for  their  better  accommodation.  Yet  if  it 
should  be  held  inconvenient,  that  may  be  referred  to 
himself  to  take  [his  wife  and]  two  children  with  him ; 
thirdly,  that  for  his  entertainment,  the  Company 
[torn  ofi\]  ^ 


April 
30. 


SOth  April,  1629.=' 

It   is  further  ordered  by  these  present,  that  the 
Governor,  the  Deputy,  and  Council  aforesaid,  or  the 


*  Arthur  Hildersham,  Malleus  He- 
reticorum,  as  he  was  called,  Mauler 
of  Heretics,  as  old  Fuller  would  ren- 
der it,  was,  according  to  Echard, 
"  a  great  and  shining  light  of  the 
Puritan  party,  and  justly  celebrated 
for  his  singular  learning  and  piety." 
He  was  born  at  Stetchworth,  in  Cam- 
bridgeshire, Oct.  6,  1563,  and  was 
educated  at  Christ's  College,  Cam- 
bridge. In  1593,  he  was  presented 
by  his  kinsman,  the  Earl  of  Hunt- 
ingdon, to  the  benefice  of  Ashby-de- 
la-Zouch,  18  miles  from  Leicester, 
where  he  preached  43  years.  In 
the  course  of  that  time  he  was  four 
times  silenced  and  restored.  In  1G15 
he  was  committed  to  the  Fleet  pri- 
son by  the  High  Commission,  where 
he  remained  three  months.  In  1616 
that  execrable  Court  again  proceed- 
ed against  him,  fined  him  X"2000, 
excommunicated  him,  degraded  him 
from  the  ministry,  and  ordered  him 
to  be  again  imprisoned.  Foreseeing 
the  danger,  however,  he  concealed 
himself  and  escaped.  In  1625  he 
was  restored  to  his  living  ;  but  when 
La\id  was  in  power,  he  was  again 
silenced,  and  was  not  restored  till  a 
few  months  before  his  death,  which 
took  place  March  4,  1632,  when  he 
was  in  the  69th  year  of  his  age.  His 


character  and  writings  were  held  in 
high  esteem  by  the  fathers  of  New- 
England.  "  It  is  affirmed,"  says 
Hubbard,  "that  Mr.  Hildersham 
advised  Mr.  Higginson  and  other 
ministers  looking  this  way,  to  agree 
upon  their  form  of  church  govern- 
ment before  they  came  away  from 
England."  See  Fuller's  Worthies, 
i.  164,  and  Church  Hist.  iii.  370  ; 
Neal's  Puritans,  ii.  245  ;  Brook's 
Lives  of  the  Puritans,  ii.  376-388  ; 
Echard's  Hist,  of  England,  p.  451, 
(ed.  1720);  Nichols's  Hist,  of  Leices- 
tershire, ii.  622  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
XV.  118. 

^  A  leaf  of  the  MS.  is  here  miss- 
ing. Hubbard,  p.  121,  and  Prince, 
p.  257,  both  appear  to  have  had  it. 
I  have  endeavoured  in  vain  to  supply 
this  deficiency  by  procuring  an  an- 
cient copy  of  these  Records  now  ex- 
isting in  England.  Prince  quotes 
from  the  Records  imder  April  16, 
"  Sixty  women  and  maids,  26  child- 
ren, and  300  men,  with  victuals, 
arms,  apparel,  tools,  140  head  of 
cattle,  &c.,  in  the  Lord  Treasurer's 
warrant   (to  go  to  New-England.)" 

^  The  first  part  of  the  Record  of 
this  meeting  is  wanting.  It  appears 
from  Prince,  p.  258,  who  had  it, 
that  at  this  meeting  they  chose  Mr. 


THE    COUNCIL    IN    NEW-ENGLAND.  67 

major  part  of  them,  shall  make  choice  of  a  Secretary,  chap. 

and  such  other  Officers  as  shall   in  their  discretions  - 

seem  requisite  and  needful  for  the  peaceable  and  1629. 
quiet  government  of  the  Plantation  ;  and  shall  frame  ^q] 
such  oaths,  and  administer  the  same  to  every  [one] 
of  them  for  the  execution  of  his  place  and  office  for 
the  year  ensuing  next  after  they  shall  have  taken 
[the  said]  oaths,  as  they  in  their  discretions,  or  the 
greater  number  of  them,  shall  think  good. 

And  it  is  ordered,  that  the  said  Governor,  Depu- 
ty, Council,  and  other  Officers  aforesaid,  shall  be 
established  and  continue  in  their  said  several  places 
for  one  whole  year,  or  until  this  Court  shall  think  fit 
to  choose  others  in  the  place  or  places  of  them,  or 
any  of  them  ;   and  in  case  of  death,  &c. 

It  is  further  ordered,  that  the  said  Governor,  Mr. 
Endecott,  [or  his  Deputy,]  and  the  said  Council,  be- 
ing chosen  as  aforesaid,  and  having  taken  their  oaths 
respectively  to  their  places,  or  the  greater  number 
of  them,  (whereof  the  Governor  or  Deputy  to  be 
always  one,)  at  any  of  their  meetings,  (which  the 
said  Governor,  at  his  discretion,  or  in  his  absence 
the  Deputy,  is  hereby  authorized  to  appoint,  as  oft 
as  there  shall  be  occasion,)  shall  have  full  power  and 
authority,  and  they  are  hereby  authorized  by  power 
derived  from  his  Majesty's  letters  patent,  to  make, 
ordain,  and  establish  all  manner  of  wholesome  and 
reasonable  orders,  laws,  statutes,  ordinances,  direc- 
tions and  instructions,  not  contrary  to  the  laws  of 
the  realm  of  England,  for  the  present  government  of 


Endicott  Governor  of  the  Plantation,     Thomas  Graves,  and  Samuel  Sharp, 
and    Messrs.    Higofinson,    Skelton,     to  be  of  his  Council. 
Bright,   John   and  Samuel    Brown, 


68  THE    GOVERNMENT    IN    NEW-ENGLAND. 

CHAP,  our  Plantation,  and  the  inhabitants  residing  within 
the  limits  of  our  Plantation  ;  a  copy  of  all  which  or- 
ders is  from  time  to  time  to  be  sent  to  the  Company 
in  England.^ 

It  is  ordered  by  these  presents,  that  a  copy  of  the 
Acts  and  Orders^  made  this  present  day  for  settling 
the  government  in  the  Plantation  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Bay  aforesaid,  shall  be  fairly  engrossed,  and 
sent  under  the  Company's  seal,  subscribed  by  the 
Governor  and  Deputy,  by  the  speediest^  conveyance 
for  New-England  that  can  be  had. 

All  this  confirmed  by  erecting  of  hands. 

Mr.  Walgrave,  Mr.  Pelham,  and  Mr.  Humphry, 
and  Mr.  Nowell,  are  entreated  to  frame  the  form  of 
the  oath  for  the  Governor,  Mr.  Endicott,  and  also 
for  his  Deputy,  and  for  the  Council,'*  which  shall  be 
sent  over  and  be  administered  to  them  in  New-Eng- 
land. 

May  Thursday,  the  1th  May,  1629.     Present, 

7. 

The  Governor,  Mr.  Coulson, 

Mr.  Deputy,  Mr.  Nowell, 

Mr.  Aldersey,  Mr.  Humphry, 

Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Tho.  Pulyston. 

Mr.  Hutchins, 

The  last  Court  was  read,  and  confirmed  by  these 
present. 

'  Some  words  in  this  and  the  pre-  ^  They  wished  to  anticipate  Old- 
ceding  paragraph,  torn  ofi"  or  oblite-  ham  in  his  contemplated  settlement 
rated  in  the  mannscript,  I  have  been  in  Massachusetts  Bay.  For  this 
enabled  to  restore  fi'om  the  "  Form  purpose  the  Company's  instnictions 
of  Government,"  sent  over  to  Endi-  to  Endicott  were  despatched  by  the 
cott,  and  which  embodies  the  sub-  George  about  a  fortnight  before  the 
stance  and  often  the  language  of  this  sailing  of  tlie  other  ships  which  car- 
day's  record.  ried   out   Higginson    and    his   com- 

^  These  Acts  and  Orders  for  the  pany. 
settling   tlie   Government,    will    be         *  These  oaths  will  also  be  found 

found  in  a  subsequent  part  of  this  in  a  subsequent  part  of  this  volume, 
volume. 


JOHN  oldham's  patent.  69 

A  form  of  an  oath  for  the   Governor  beyond  the  chap. 

•^                  III. 
seas,  and  of  an  oath  for  the  Council  there,  was  drawn — 

and  delivered  to  Mr.  Humphry  to  show  the  Council.^  i62  9. 

Letters  are  to  be  written  about  lands  to  be  allotted     7^^ 
to  each  adventurer. 

Also,    about    Mr.   Fra.    Webb's   business   for   a 
mill,  &LC. 

To  have  those   punished  beyond  seas   that   sell 
guns. 

To  have  some  men's  lands  laid  together. 


The  11th  of  May,  1629.     Present  this  day,  u 

Mr.  Deputy,  Mr.  Humfreys, 

Mr.  Treasurer,  Mr.  Vassall, 

Sir  Richard  Salton stall,  Mr.  Peters,* 

Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Pinchon, 

Mr.  Nowell,  Mr.  Whyte. 
Mr.  Hutchins, 

This  day  Mr.  Oldham  propounded  unto  Mr.  White, 
that^he  would  have  his  patent  examined  ;  and  it  is 
agreed  by  the  Court  not  to  have  any  treaty  with  him 
about  it,  by  reason  it  is  thought  he  doth  it  not  out  of 
love,  but  out  of  some  sinister  respect. 

A  warrant  delivered  unto  Mr.  Seale  for  ten  dozen 
and  two  hats,  at  2^.  per  dozen,  for  the  sum  of  20s.  Ad. 

1  The  Pri^-y  Council.  early  as  May  30,  1628.    See  Hutch- 

^  This  was  the  celebrated  Hugh     inson's  Mass.  i.  9. 
Peters.     He  was  in  the  Company  as 


70 


FIRST    ELECTION    DAY. 


1629. 

May 
13. 


The  IWi  of  May,  1629.^ 

The  Governor, 

Mr.  Deputy, 

Mr.  Treasurer, 

Mr.  Glover, 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall, 

Mr.  Adams, 

Mr.  Offield, 

Mr.  Whetcombe, 

Mr.  Foxcroft, 

Mr.  Vassall, 

Mr.  Perry, 

Mr.  Nowell, 


Present  this  day, 

Mr.  Pinchon, 
Mr.  Hutchins, 
Mr.  Hewson, 
Mr.  Backhouse, 
Mr.  Ballard, 
Mr.  Crowther, 
Mr.  Whichcote, 
Mr.  White, 
Mr.  Peters, 
Mr.  Crane, 
Mr.  Hubiphry. 


Delivered  a  warrant  unto  Richard  Bowry  for  twelve 
pounds,  £12,  as  |  parts  of  d£18,  the  other  ^  being 
to  be  paid  for  the  Governor,  and  is  for  his  appren- 
tice, Robert  Scale,  his  time. 

Mr.  Matthew  Cradock  is  this  day  chosen  by  the 
consent  of  the  generality  of  the  Company  to  be  Gov- 
ernor to  the  New-England  Company  for  the  year 
following  ;  Mr.  Thomas  Goffe,^  Deputy  ;  also,  Mr. 
George  Harwood,^  Treasurer  to  the  said  Company. 


^  "  Hubbard  styles  this  the  second 
court  of  election ,  when  by  the  royal 
charter  it  is  the  first ;  though  by 
virtue  of  the  former  patent  from  the 
New-England  Council,  it  seems  the 
Company  had  chosen  a  governor,  &c. 
the  year  belbre."  Prince,  Annals, 
p.  260 ;  Hubbard,  in  Mass.  Hist. 
Coll.  XV.  122. 

^  Goffe  was  a  London  merchant, 
and  had  been  previously  engaged  in 
furthering  the  Colony  at  New  Ply- 
mouth. His  name  occurs  frequently 
in  Wiuthrop's  Journal.  See  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.  lii.  48. 

^  I  find  the  name  of  George  Har- 
vvood,  citizen  of  London,  in  the  Ust 
of  the   twelve  feofees  into    whose 


hands  was  paid  the  money  raised  in 
1624  for  buying  up  impropriations 
and  supporting  ' '  lecturers  ' '  or 
preachers  in  destitute  places  in 
England.  Two  other  members  of 
the  Massachusetts  Company,  John 
White,  the  lawyer,  and  the  Rev. 
John  Davenport,  afterwards  of  New 
Haven  and  Boston,  were  among 
these  feofees.  They  were  sup- 
pressed and  ruined  by  Laud  in  1633. 
A  good  account  of  their  purpose 
may  be  found  in  Carlyle's  Cromwell, 
i.  50,  70,  88,  (Am.  edit.)  See 
Brook's  Lives  of  the  Puritans,  i.  75, 
and  Neal's  Hist,  of  the  Puritans,  ii, 
248. 


OFFICERS    OF    THE    COMPANY    CHOSEN.  71 

The   Assistants  being  this  day  to  be  chosen,  two  chap. 

of  the  former  Assistants,  mentioned  in  the  patent, 

viz.  Mr.  John  Endecott  and  Mr.  John  Browne  being  1629. 
out  of  the  land,  the  other  sixteen  were  confirmed,  13^ 
viz.  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  Isaac  Johnson, 
Mr.  Samuel  Aldersey,  Mr.  John  Venn,  Mr.  John 
Humphry,  Mr.  Symon  Whetcombe,  Increase  Nowell, 
Richard  Perry,  Nathaniel  Wright,  Samuel  Vassall, 
Theophilus  Eaton,  Thomas  Adams,  Thomas  Hutch- 
ins,  George  Foxcroft,  William  Vassall,  and  W^illiam 
Pinchion  ;  and  to  make  up  the  number  of  eighteen, 
Mr.  John  Pocock  and  Mr.  Christopher  Coulson  were 
chosen  Assistants.  And  of  these  all,  excepting  Mr. 
Isaac  Johnson,  Samuel  Aldersey,  John  Venn,  Nathan- 
iel W"right,  Samuel  Vassall,  Theophilus  Eaton  and 
Christopher  Coulson,  took  their  oaths  appertaining. 

William  Burges,  Humphry  Lewis,  John  Wash- 
borne,  and  Lawrence  Roe,  being  all  put  in  election 
for  the  place  of  Secretary,  by  a  free  election,  Mr. 
William  Burges  was  chosen  Secretary  for  the  year 
ensuing.^ 

Humphry  Scale  chosen  and  sworn  Beadle. 

It  is  this  day  ordered,  that  whensoever  any  Court 
of  Assistants  shall  be  summoned,  whosoever  of  the 
Assistants  comes  not,  'twixt  25  March  and  29  of 
September,  before  eight  of  the  clock  in  the  morning, 
and  from  29  September  to  25  March,  before  9  of  the 
clock  in  the  morning,  shall  forfeit  twelve  pence  for 
every  such  offence  ;  and  if  he  come  not  within  two 
hours  after  either  of  the  said  hours  respectively,  then 
two  shillings  for  every  default   each  man  to  forfeit 

'  Washbume,  I  suspect,  was  su-  ble  chirography.  He  certainly  de- 
perseded  on  account  of  his  illegi-    served  to  be. 


72  NAMES    OF    THE    COMPANY'S    OFFICERS. 

CHAP,  and  pay  ;   and  for  want  of  payment  within  [blank] 
— —  days,  after  demand  made  by  the  officer  of  the  Com- 
1629,  pany,  the  fine  double  to  be  set   upon  his  account; 
13^   always  [provided,  upon  the  pleasure]  of  the  Govern- 
or, Deput}  ,  or  a  lawful  expression  of  approbation,  [a 
line  or  two  torn  off.] 

It  is  also  agreed,  that  for  any  that  shall  have  pri- 
vate conference  after  the  Court  is  summoned,  by  the 
Governor  or  his  Deputy  knocking  of  the  hammer 
thrice  on  the  table,  to  sit  down  and  attend  the  Court, 
that  sixpence  by  every  person  for  every  such  offence 
shall  be  paid. 

It  is  agreed,  that  three  pounds  shall  be  paid  John 
Washbourne  for  his  pains  as  Secretary  to  the  Com- 
pany for  the  time  past. 


The  Names  of  the   Governor,  Deputy,  Treasurer,  and 
Assistants,  for  the  year  1629,  and  other  Officers. 

Mr.  Matthew  Cradock,  Gover7ior. 

Mr.  Thomas  Goffe,  Deputy. 

Mr.  George  Harwood,   Treasurer. 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,         Mr.  Samuel  Vassall, 
Mr.  Isaac  Johnson,  Mr.  Theophilus  Eaton, 

Mr.  Samuel  Aldersey,  Mr.  Thomas  Adabis, 

Mr.  John  Venn,  Mr.  Thomas  Hutchins, 

Mr.  John  Humfrev,  Mr.  George  Foxcroft, 

Mr.  SifMON  Whetcombe,  Mr.  William  Vassall, 

Mr.  Increase  Nowell,  Mr.  William  Pinchion, 

Mr.  Richard  Perry,  Mr.  John  Pocock, 

Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright,  Mr.  Christopher  Cowlson. 

Assistants. 

William  Burgis,  Secretary. 

Humphrey  Seale,  Beadle. 


GOVERNMENT    OF    THE    COLONY.  73 


At  a  Court  of  Assistants,  on  Monday,  the  18th  of  May,  chap 
1629.     Present,  — ■ 

1629 

Mr.  Governor,  Mr.  Thojias  Adams, 

Mr.  Deputy,  Mr.  Symon  Whetcombe,        ^g^ 

Sir  R.  Salto^jstall,  Mr.  Richard  Perry, 

Mr.  George  Harwood,  Treasurer,  Mr.  John  Pocock, 
Mr.  John  Humphrey,  Mr.  George  Foxcroft. 


William  Burgis,  chosen  by  the  last  General  Court 
to  be  Secretary  for  the  year  ensuing,  was  now  ad- 
mitted and  sworn  accordingly ;  upon  the  salary  of 
twenty  marks  from  the  day  he  was  chosen,  for  the 
said  year. 

The  Acts  made  at  a  Court  the  30th  of  April  last, 
for  choosing  and  establishing  a  Governor,  Deputy, 
Council,  and  other  Officers  in  New-England,  was 
now  read  ;  and  this  Court  thought  fit  to  add  there- 
unto, that  they  shall  be  established  in  their  said  sev- 
eral places  for  one  whole  year,  or  till  such  time  as 
the  Company  here  shall  think  fit  to  choose  others  in 
the  places  of  them,  or  any  of  them  ;  and  that  in  case 
any  of  them  shall  depart  this  life  before  the  expira- 
tion of  the  time  they  were  so  chosen  for,  that  the 
Governor  or  Deputy  and  Council,  at  an  ample  Court 
assembled,  shall  have  power  to  nominate  and  choose 
fit  person  or  persons  to  succeed  him  or  them  so  de- 
ceased in  the  said  place  or  places  for  the  residue  of 
the  time  unexpired. 

Upon  motion  made  for  allotment  of  land  to  the 
several  adventurers  and  planters,^ 

Mr.  Humphreys  and  Mr.  Adams  are  desired  to 
meet  and  consider  what  provisions  are  fit  to  be  now 

*  There  appears  to  be  something:  omitted  here. 


74  THE    ALLOTMENT    OF    LAND. 

CHAP,  sent  over  to  Captain  John  Indicott  and  his  family, 

and  to  provide  the  same  accordingly. 

16  29.  rpj^g  names  of  all  the  adventm^ers  to  be  now  sent 
18.  over,  with  the  several  sums  by  them  underwritten  ; 
and  it  is  ordered  that  the  Governor  and  Council 
there  shall  have  power  to  allot  unto  every  particular 
adventurer  that  shall  desire  the  same  by  himself  or 
his  assignees,  two  hundred  acres  of  land  upon  the 
sum  of  <£50  adventure  in  the  general  stock  in  this 
first  dividend,  and  proportionably  for  more  or  less 
according  to  their  several  adventures  ;  and  Mr.  Go- 
vernor, Deputy,  Mr.  Whyte,  and  Mr.  Adams,  and 
Mr.  Whetcombe  are  to  meet  at  Mr.  Governor's 
house  ^  to-morrow  morning  at  six  of  the  clock  to  ad- 
vise and  conclude  of  this  business. 


19.  The  19//i  of  May,  1629.     [Present,] 

Mr.  Governor,  Mr.  Whetcombe, 

Mr.  Whyte,  Mk.  Adams. 

Concerning  the  allotment  of  land  to  those  persons 
as  are  adventurers  in  the  common  stock,  it  is  thought 
fit  that  letters  be  written  to  the  Governor  to  set  out 
and  allot  unto  them  after  the  propox  tion  of  two  hun- 
dred acres  of  land  for  X50  adventure,  and  after  that 
rate  for  more  or  less,  to  the  intent  to  build  their 
houses  and  to  improve  their  labors  thereon.  And  if 
within  ten  days  after  their  arrival,  and  demand  made 
by  any  particular  adventurer  in  the  common  stock, 
or  his  servant  for  him,  the  same  be  not  so  allotted, 

'  Governor  Cradock's  house  was  in  St.  ISwitliin's  Lane,  near  London 
Stone. 


THE    ALLOTMENT    OF    LAND.  75 

that  each  man,  beinor  an  adventurer,  is  hereby  per-  chap. 

.                    .      .                                "     .         "I- 
mitted  free  liberty  to  build  in  any  place  where  him 

self  shall  think  most  convenient,  with  reservation  i629. 
not  to  build  or  manure  that  already  built  on  or  ma-  ^g^ 
nured  ;  provided  that  if  the  plot  of  ground  whereon 
the  town  is  intended  to  be  built  be  set  out,  and  it  be 
publicly  known  to  be  intended  for  that  purpose,  that 
then  no  man  shall  presume  to  build  his  house  any- 
where else,  (unless  it  be  in  the  Massachusetts  Bay,^ 
and  there  according  to  such  directions  as  shall  be 
thought  meet  for  that  place.)  But  in  case  his  allot- 
ment be  not  set  out  within  the  town  where  he  shall 
build,  and  having,  in  his  own  name  or  in  the  behalf 
of  his  master,  made  request  to  the  Governor  to  have 
the  same  assigned  to  him,  if  it  be  not  done  within 
ten  days  after  his  arrival,  it  shall  be  free  for  any  in 
such  case,  being  an  adventurer  in  the  common  stock, 
to  build  his  house  within  the  aforesaid  plot  of  ground, 
set  out  for  the  town  to  be  built  on,  and  to  impale  to 
his  own  use  proportionable  to  half  an  acre  of  ground 
for  £50  adventure  in  the  common  stock  ;  unless  a 
greater  or  lesser  proportion  be  formerly  determined 
of  by  the  Governor  and  Council  ;  in  which  case  that 
proportion  is  to  be  made  use  of  and  appropriated  to 
each  man  within  the  liberties  of  the  plot  set  out  for 
the  town  to  be  built  on.  And  it  is  ordered,  that 
conveyance  be  made  in  the  Company's  name,  with 
the  common  seal  of  the  Company  to  it,  to  any  that 
shall  desire  it,  for  each  man's  peaceable  enjoying  of 
that  land  he  holds,  at  the  charge  of  the  Company. 
It  is  farther  thought  fit  and  ordered,  that  all  such 

'  See  note  '  on  page  4. 


76  THE    ALLOTMENT    OF    LAND. 

CHAP,  persons  as  go  over  at  their  own  charge,  and  are  acl- 

—  venturers  in   the  common  stock,   shall   have   lands 

1629.  allotted  to  them  for  themselves  and  their  families 
19^  forthwith,  fifty  acres  of  land  for  each  person  ;  but 
being  no  adventurers  in  the  common  stock,  shall 
have  fifty  acres  of  land  for  the  master  of  the  family, 
and  such  a  proportion  of  land  more,  if  there  be  cause, 
as,  according  to  their  charge  and  quality,  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Council  of  New-England  shall  think  neces- 
sary for  them,  whereby  their  charge  may  be  fully 
and  amply  supported  ;  unless  it  be  to  any  with  whom 
the  Company  in  London  shall  make  any  other  par- 
ticular agreement,  to  which  relation  is  to  be  had  in 
such  case.  And  for  such  as  transport  servants,  land 
shall  be  allotted  for  each  servant,  fifty  acres  to  the 
master  ;  which  land  the  master  is  to  dispose  of  at  his 
discretion,  in  regard  the  servants'  transportation, 
wages,  &c.,  is  at  the  master's  charge. 


21.    A  Court  of  Assistants,  on  Thursday  the  21st  of  May, 

1629.     Present, 

Mr.  Governor,  Mr.  Bilson, 

Mr.  Goff,  Deputy,  Mr.  Thomas  Hxjson, 

Mr.  Harwood,   Treasurer,  Mr.  Increase  Noell, 

Mr,  Adams,  Mr.  Humphrey, 

Mr.  Whichcoyte,  Capt.  Waller, 

^  Mr.  Foxcroft,  Mr.  Hutchins. 

Mr.  Eaton, 

Mr.  Eaton  took  the  oath  of  Assistant.  And  he 
is  desired  to  accompany  Mr.  Humphrey  to  Mr.  Whyte, 
the  counsellor,  to  be  satisfied  concerning  the  admin- 
istering oaths  to  the  Governor  and  Council  in  New- 


THE    GOVERNMENT    IN    NEW-ENGLAND.  77 

England.    Mr.  Whetcombe  is  also  desired  to  be  with  chap. 
them.  — - 

The  Court  of  the  18th  of  May  was  now  read,  as  also  ^^^ 
the  Order  conceived  by  Mr.  Governor  and  others 
concerning  the  allotment  of  lands,  and  a  part  of  the 
letter'  formerly  written  in  this  particular  was  con- 
firmed ;  whereunto  this  Court  thought  fit  to  add, — r 
If  within  ten  days  after  the  arrival  of  these  ships,  and 
demand  made  by  any  person,  adventurer  in  the  com- 
mon stock,  or  his  or  their  servant,  of  their  allotment 
of  land,  the  same  not  being  done,  that  then  each  per- 
son be  permitted  to  seat  himself  and  build  his  house 
in  a  convenient  place  not  formerly  built  [upon]  nor 
manured,  and  enclose  the  same  to  his  or  their  use, 
not  exceeding  the  one  half  of  that  proportion  which 
by  the  former  order  of  this  Court  is  allowed  ;  and 
when  the  dividend  is  made,  to  be  free  to  make  his 
choice  within  the  said  allotment,  if  he  dislike  that  he 
had  formerly  chosen. 

It  is  thought  fit  that  the  Secretary  draw  out  at 
large  the  Orders"  concerning  the  establishment  of 
the  Governor  and  Council  in  New-England,  as  also 
the  Order ^  made  concerning  the  allotment  of  lands  ; 
and  Mr.  Governor,  Mr.  Deputy,  Mr.  Treasurer,  Mr. 
Adams,  Mr.  Eaton,  Mr.  Hutchins,  Mr.  Nowell,  Mr. 
Whetcombe,  Mr.  William  Vassall,  or  any  four  of 
them,  whereof  the  Governor  or  Deputy  to  be  always 
one,  are  desired  and  appointed  to  meet  and  resolve 
of  these  Orders,  and  to  affix  the  Company's  seal 
thereunto  ;  as  also  for  preparing  letters  to  be  now 


^  The  letter  here  referred  to  was  in  a  subsequent  part  of  this  volume, 
one  written  to  Endicott  on  the  17th  ^  These  Orders  will  be  found  in  a 
and  21st  of  April.     It  wiU  be  found     subsequent  part  of  this  volume. 


78  OFFICERS    OF    THE    PLANTATION. 

CHAP,  written,  and  to  resolve  and  determine  of  all  other 

in. 
-^  business  requisite  for  despatching  of  these  ships.^ 

1629. 


22 


May    A  Meeting  at  the  Governor's  house  on  Friday y  the  22d 
of  May,  1629.     Present, 

Mr.  Governor,  Mr.  Adams, 

Deputy,  Mr.  Humphrey. 

The  Orders  drawn  for  the  establishment  of  the 
Governor,  Deputy,  and  Council,  and  other  Officers 
in  the  Plantation  at  the  Mattachusetts  Bay  in  New- 
England,  as  also  the  Orders  for  the  dividing  and  allot- 
ment of  land  there  to  the  adventurers  and  others, 
were  now  read,  advised  on,  corrected,  and  concluded 
on,  &LC.  ;  together  with  the  General  Letter  from  the 
Company  here  to  the  Governor  and  Council  there.^ 
All  which  are  appointed  to  be  fairly  engrossed,  and 
the  said  Orders  to  be  sealed  with  the  common  seal  of 
the  Company,  and  sent  over  upon  the  ships  now 
ready  to  depart  for  New-England. 


June      A  General  Court  the  11th  of  June,  1629.     Present, 

Mr.  Governor,  Mr.  William  Vassall, 

Mr.  Deputy,  Mr.  Webb, 

Mr.  Harwood,  Treasurer,  Mr.  IIumfrey, 

Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Crane, 

Mr.  John  Venn,  Mr.  Pulliston, 

Mr.  Backhouse,  Mr.  Foxcroft. 

This  Court  was  appointed  to  take  consideration  of 

'  These   ships    were,   the    l\Iay-  -  This   is  tlieir   Second  Letter  to 

flower,  the  Four  Sisters  of  400  tons,  Endicott,  dated  May  18lh.     It  will 

and  the  Piloriin.    They  sailed  about  appear  hereafter, 
the  end  of  this  month. 


HENRY    GAUDEN's    DEMAND.  79 

raising  of  moneys  for  payment  of  divers  debts  and  chap. 
bills  ;   and  thereupon  an  estimate  was  made  of  what 
was  owing,  per  severals'  bills,  and  which  are  of  ne- 
cessity to  be  presently  paid. 

That  another  day  be  appointed,  and  the  whole 
Company  to  be  summoned  by  tickets,  which  is 
thought  fit  to  be  on  Wednesday  next. 

Mr.  Godden,^  master  of  the  ship  [blank],  made 
demand  of  freight  pretended  to  be  due  unto  him  for 
his  last  voyage  ;  but  he  not  expressing  a  certain  sum, 
this  Assembly  think  fit  to  defer  him  till  the  next 
Court ;  and  in  the  mean  time  he  is  desired  to  bring 
in  a  note  of  what  is  due,  as  also  to  give  security  to 
the  Company  to  free  them  from  any  further  de- 
mands, &.C.,  and  thereupon  a  final  conclusion  thereof 
to  be  made. 


A  General  Court  at  the  Deputy's  house  on  Wednesday, 
the  11th  of  June,  1629.     Present, 

Mr.  Governor,  Mr.  Cooke, 

Mr.  Deputy,  Mr.  Clarke, 

Sir  R.  Saltonstall,  Mr.  Ballard, 

Mr.  George  Foxcroft,  Mr.  Pulison, 

Mr.  Richard  Perry,  Mr.  Walgrave, 

Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Backhouse, 

Mr.  Whitcombe,  Mr.  Davis, 

Mr.  Pococke,  Mr.  Edmund  VVhyte, 

Mr.  Johnson,  Capt.  Waller, 

Mr.  Noell,  Capt.  Venn, 

Mr.  Harwood,  Treasurer,  Mr.  Davis,^ 

Mr.  Whyte,  Mr.  Thomas  Andrews, 

Mr.  Pelham,  Mr.  Aldersey. 


*  Henry  Ganden  was  master  of  the        ^  Mr.  Davis's  name  was  probably 
Abigail,  the  ship  that  carried  over    repeated  by  mistake. 
Endicott  and  his  company.  See  p.  43. 


17. 


1629 


RAISING    OF    MONEY. 

Mr.  [blank]  Johnson^  sworn   an  Assistant  of  this 
Company,   being  chosen  thereunto  at   a  Court  the 
13th  of  May,  1629. 
1™^       Mr.  Governor  moved  that  a  course  might  be  set- 
tled for  bringing  in  of  moneys,  and 

Mr.  Treasurer  returned  a    note   concerning   the 
Leicestershire  men. 
It  was  propounded. 

To  increase  their  former  subscriptions, 

To  invite  others  to  underwrite. 

To  borrow  money  for  a  time  to  supply  the 

occasions. 
To  take  up  money  at  interest. 
That  those  here  present  do  furnish  [£]200  or 
[£]100  apiece,  to  have  allowance  for  it. 
The  Court  taking  into   consideration  the  necessity 
of  a  present  supply  of  the  sum   of  £1500,   for  dis- 
charging of  debts  and  bills,  and  that  the  moneys  un- 
derwritten by  the  adventurers,  and  not  yet  brought 
in,  nor  not  likely  to  be  brought  in,  in  convenient  time 
for  satisfaction  of  those  debts  and  bills  which  are  of 
necessity  to  be  presently  paid  ;   upon  several   propo- 
sitions made,  it  is  desired   and  concluded  on,  that 
those   of  the  Company  here  present  would   each  of 
them  voluntarily  lend  such  a  sum   of  money  as  he 
shall  think  fit,  for  advancing  the  sum  wanting,  and  to 
have  the  common  seal  of  the   Company  for   the  re- 
payment thereof,  according  to  the  time  for  which  he 
or  they  so  lend  the  same  ;  and  also  that  the  Secretary 
be  appointed  to  go  to  such  others  of  the  Company 
not  present  as  Mr.  Governor  shall  name,  to  intimate 

^  This  was  Isaac  Johnson,  already     account  of  him  will  be  given  here- 
mentioued  on  pp.  65  and  72.     Some    after. 


MONEY    SUBSCRIBED. 


81 


the  same  unto  them,  and  to  desire  them  to  under-  chap 
write  what  sums  they  will  lend  for  this  occasion,  -^ — — ■ 
according  as  many  of  the  Company  here  present  ^^^^ 
have  done.  And  it  is  ordered  that  the  common  seal 
of  the  Company  be  given  to  them,  and  all  others 
that  will  lend,  for  repayment  thereof  at  such  time  as 
they  shall  desire  the  same. 

Names  of  those  in  Court  that  underwrit  to  lend. 


June 
17. 


Sir  R,  Saltonstall, 

^100 

Syji.  WhETC03IBE, 

^25 

Mr.  Goveknor, 

150 

Tho.  Hutchins, 

25 

Ms.  Deputy, 

50 

Edw.  Cooke, 

50 

[Richard]  Perry, 

25 

Dan.  Ballard, 

25 

[Tiio.MAs]  Adams, 

50 

Edm.  Whyte, 

20 

Increase  Noell, 

25 

Joseph  Caron,^ 

25 

George  Harwood, 

50 

[Sa3Iuel]  Aldersey, 

50 

Richard  Whyte, 

25 

Tho.  Andrews, 

25 

Mr.  Clark, 

25 

Auditors  appointed  for  auditing  the  accounts,  viz. 
Mr.  Symon  Whetcombe,  Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright,  Mr. 
Noell,  Mr.  Perry,  Mr.  Crane,  Mr.  Clarke,  Mr.  Eaton, 
and  Mr.  Andrews  ;~  these  eight,  or  any  four  or  more 
of  them,  to  meet  at  a  convenient  time  and  place  to 
audit  the  accounts. 

A  Committee  for  reducing  of  all  former  Orders 
into  a  method,  viz.  the  Governor,  Mr.  Whyte,  Mr. 
Davenport,  Mr.  Johnson,  Capt.  Waller,  Capt.  Venn, 


'  Probably  the  same  person  who 
signed  the  instructions  to  Endicott, 
May  30,  1628,  and  who  is  there 
called  Joseph  Caxon.  See  Hutch- 
inson's INIass.  i.  9. 

^  Thomas  Andrews  was  a  London 
merchant,  living  in  Bowe  Lane,  and 
was  mayor  of  the  city  in  1551.  He 
was  one  of  the  adventurers  that 
were  interested  in  the  P]}anouth 
Colony.     He  is  not  to  be  confound- 


ed with  Richard,  probably  his  bro- 
ther, a  haberdasher  at  the  Mermaid 
in  Clieapside,  who  was  also  interest- 
ed in  the  Plymouth  adventure,  and 
\Vas  an  eminent  benefactor  of  the 
]\Iassachusetts  Colony,  having  sent 
them  sixteen  heifers  and  upwards 
of  £500  in  money.  See  Mass.  Hist. 
Coll.  iii.  48,  xxi.  22,  and  Savaoe's 
Wintlirop,  i.  13G,  374,  ii.  75,  212, 
342. 


82  THE    ACCOUNTS    TO    BE    AUDITED. 

CHAP.  Mr.   Aldersey,   Mr.  Adams,   Mr.  Wright,   and  Mr. 

Darby,  they  or  any  four  of  them,  and  to  present  the 

^f%^-  same   to  the  next   General  Court,  to  be  ratified  and 

June 

17.  confirmed,  in  part  or  in  Avhole,  as  shall  be  then 
thought  fit  ;  which  are  then  by  the  Secretary  to  be 
entered  into  a  fair  book  to  be  kept  for  that  purpose, 
according  to  the  usage  and  custom  of  other  Compa- 
nies. 


July    A  General  Court  holdenfor  the  Company  of  the  Matta- 

^  '         chusetts   Bay,    in  New-England,   at   Mr.   Deputy's 

house,  on  Tuesday  the  28th  of  July,  1629.    Present, 

Mr.  Matthew  Cradock,  Governor, 

Mr.  Thomas  Goff,  Deputy, 
Mr.  George  Harwood,   Treasurer, 
Mr.  Thomas  Adams,  Mr.  Samuel  Vassall, 

Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright,  Mr.  Joseph  Bradshawe, 

Mr.  Theophilus  Eaton,  Mr.  Burnell, 

Mr.  Richard  Perry,  Mr.  Revell, 

Mr.  Increase  Noell,  Mr.  Daniel  Ballard, 

Mr.  Symon  Whetcombe,  Mr.  Spurstowe, 

Mr.  John  Pocock,  Mr.  Thomas  Hewson, 
Mr.  [Christopher]  Colson,        Mr.  Woodgate, 
Mr.  [Thomas]  Hutchins,  Mr.  Webb, 

Mr.  William  Pinchon,  Mr.  Crane, 

Assistants.  Generality. 

The  business  treated  on  at  the  last  meeting  was 
now  read  ;  and  thereupon  the  accounts  of  Mr.  Gov- 
ernor, Mr.  Deputy,  and  Mr.  Treasurer,  being  now 
presented  to  this  Court,  the  Auditors  formerly  ap- 
pointed for  auditing  the  Company's  accounts  were 
now  desired  to  meet  and  peruse  and  audit  these  ac- 
counts ;  which  they  have  agreed  to  do  to-morrow  in 
the  afternoon. 


A    LETTER    FROM    EXDICOTT.  83 

It  was  moved  by  Mr.  Governor,  that  a  ship  of  four  chap. 

hundred  tons  and  of  good  force  being  now  to  be  sold,  

should  be  bought  for  the  Company's  use,  upon  their  1629. 
general  stock  ;  or  that  some  particular  members  of  ^"^y 
the  Company  would  undertake  to  buy  the  said  ship, 
in  regard  the  Company  are  not  now  in  cash  ;  and 
that  the  Company  will  not  only  employ  that  ship, 
but  take  other  ships  of  them  of  less  defence,  for 
transport  of  their  cattle  and  all  other  commodities, 
from  time  to  time,  so  long  as  they  shall  be  willing  to 
furnish  such  shipping.  Whereupon  Mr.  Governor 
declared  that  he  was  willing  to  take  i  part  of  the 
said  ship,  or  under, 


And  did  write 

1  part. 

Mr.  Revell, 

1 

1  6 

Mr.  Deputy, 

1 

Mr.  Aldersey, 

tV 

Mr.  Ada3is, 

1 

Mr.  Milburne, 

i 

Mr.  Wright, 

i 

Mr.  Huson, 

tV 

Mr.  Eaton, 

1 

The  Company, 

i 

Mr.  Whetco3ibe, 

r\ 

&c. 

A  letter^  of  the  27th  of  May  from  Mr.  John  En- 
decott  was  now  read ;  wherein,  amongst  other  things, 
he  complains  of  the  profane  and  dissolute  living  of 
divers  of  our  nation,  former  traders  to  those  parts, 
and  of  their  irregular  trading  with  the  Indians,^  con- 
trary to  his  late  Majesty's  Proclamation,^  desiring 
that  the  Company  would  take  the  same  into  their 
serious  consideration,  and  to  use  some  speedy  means 

'  This   letter,    unfortunately,    is  ^  This   proclamation,  prohibiting 

not  presented.  interloping-  and  disorderly  trading  to 

*  Endicott  probably  had  in  view  New- England  in  America,  was  is- 
Morton,  of  j\lount  Wollaston,  who  sued  by  James  I.  on  the  6th  of  No- 
is  said  to  have  been  the  first  in  these  vember,  1622.  It  is  printed  in  Ry- 
parts  to  sell  guns  and  ammunition  mer's  Fcedera,  xvii.  416,  and  in 
to  the  Indians,  and  to  teach  them  Hazard's  State  Papers,  i.  151. 
tlieir  use.  See  Morton's  Memorial, 
p.  138. 


84  IRREGULAR    TRADING    WITH    THE    INDIANS. 

CHAP,  here  for  reformation  thereof.     Whereupon  th  e  Pro- 
" — —'  clamation  made  in   anno  1622  was  read,  and  it  is 
^^^^"  thought  fit  that  suit  be  made  to  his  Majesty  or  the 
23.    Lords  ^  for  renewing  thereof,  with   addition  of  such 
beneficial  clauses   as   shall  be  needful  for  reforming 
so  great  and  unsufferable  abuses  ;  and  Mr.  Governor, 
Mr,   Aldersey,   Mr.    Wright,    and  Mr.   Eaton,   are 
desired  to  repair  to  the  Lord  Keeper^  and  Mr,  Sec- 
retary Coke^  to  acquaint  their  Honors  herewith,  and 
afterwards  a  petition  to  be  presented  to  the  Council 
Board  accordingly. "* 

A  note  of  divers  propositions  offered  to  the  consi- 
deration of  this  Company  by  one  John  Betts  was 
read,  pretending  that  he  is  able  to  discover  divers 
things  for  the  good  and  advancement  of  the  Planta- 
tion, and  the  benefit  of  this  Company.  Whereupon 
some  of  those  here  present  were  desired  to  inquire 
further  of  him,  not  only  of  his  ability,  but  of  his  de- 
portment in  his  life  and  conversation,  and  then  the 
Company  to  treat  with  him  as  they  shall  think  fit. 

Also,  Mr.  Webb  moved  concerning  a  Frenchman, 
being  a  physician,  and  otherwise  well  qualified,  who 
is  desirous  to  go  over  to  live  upon  the  Company's 
Plantation,  and  gave  good  commendations  both  of  his 
sufiiciency  and  of  his   godly  life  and  conversation  ; 


*  Of  the  Privy  Council.  ■*  In  compliance  with  this  petition, 

^  Lord  Coventry,   late   Sir   Tho-  a  new  proclamation  was  issued  by 

mas,  was  at  this  time  lord  keeper  of  Charles  I.  on  the  Q-lth  of  November, 

the    great  seal   of  England.      See  l()3l),  forbidding  the  disorderly  ti-ad- 

Clarcndon's  Hist,  of  the  Rebellion,  iiig  with  the  salvages  in  New-Eng- 

i.  80,  land  in  America,  especially  the  fur- 

^  Sir  John  Coke  ;  not,  as  might  nishing   the   natives    in    those   and 

at  first  be  supposed,  Edward,   the  other  parts  of  America  by  the  Eng- 

famous  Coke   upon   Littleton,  who  lish  with  weapons  and  habiliments 

was  then  in  his  81st  year.     See  C-la-  of  war.     See  it  in  Rymer's  Fcedera, 

rendon's  Rebellion,  i,  113,  and  Miss  xix.  210,  and  in  Hazard's  State  Pa- 

Aikin's  Charles  I,  i.  361.  pers,  i.  311. 


cradock's  proposition.  85 

and  of  one  Mr.  Gardner,  an  able  and  expert  man  in  chap. 

.       .               III. 
divers  faculties  ;  who  are  to  be  further  inquired  of - 

and  treated  with,   against  the  next  meeting  of  the  I629. 
Company.  g^sf 

It  is  also  thought  fit  and  ordered,  that  letters  be 
written  to  those  in  the  country  to  pay  in  what  they 
are  behind  upon  their  subscriptions  ;  and  that  some 
tradesmen  here  in  London  that  have  occasion  to 
travel  into  any  of  those  parts,  be  desired  to  receive 
the  money  on  the  Company's  behalf 

And  lastly,  Mr.  Governor  read  certain  propo- 
sitions conceived  by  himself,^  viz.  That  for  the 
advancement  of  the  Plantation,  the  inducing  and 
encouraging  persons  of  worth  and  quality  to  trans- 
plant themselves  and  families  thither,  and  for  other 
weighty  reasons^  therein  contained,  to  transfer  the 
government  of  the  Plantation  to  those  that  shall 
inhabit  there,  and  not  to  continue  the  same  in  subor- 
dination to  the  Company  here,  as  now  it  is.  This 
business  occasioned  some  debate  ;  but  by  reason  of 
the  many  great  and  considerable  consequences  there- 
upon depending,  it  was  not  now  resolved  upon,  but 
those  present  are  desired  privately^  and  seriously  to 
consider  hereof,  and  to  set  down  their  particular 
reasons  in  writing  pro  et  contra,  and  to  produce  the 
same  at  the  next  General  Court  ;  where  they  being 
reduced  to  heads,  and  maturely  considered  of,  the 
Company   may  then   proceed  to   a  final  resolution 

^  Let  it  be  noted,  that  Cradock  prudent   or  safe  to   mention  at  that 

was  at  the  bottom  of  this  move-  time, 
ment.  ^   Privately,    secretly.       This    is 

^  What  these  other  weighty  rea-  noteworthy.    They  doubtless  appre- 

sons  were,  we  are  left  to  conjecture,  hended  that  measures  might  be  taken 

Considerations  of  a  religious  nature  to  defeat  their  purpose,  should  it  be- 

it  would  not,   perhaps,  have  been  come  known  to  those  in  authority. 


86 


SHALL  THE  GOVERNMENT  AND  PATENT 


CHAP,  thereon.     And  in  the  mean  time  they  are  desired  to 

in. 
^^-^  carry  this  business  secretly,'   that   the  same  be  not 

1629.  divulged. 


Aug. 
28. 


A  General  Court  liolden  at  Mr. 
of  August,  1629. 

Mr.  Goff,  Deputy, 

Mr.  Harwood,   Treasurer, 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall, 

Mr.  Johnson, 

Mr.  Davenport, 

Mr.  Humfreys, 

Mr.  Adams, 

Capt.  Venn, 

Mr.  Pocock, 

Mr.  Perry, 

Mr.  Colston, 

Mr.  Pinchion, 

Mr.  VVm.  Vassall, 


Deputy's  house,  the  28th 
Present, 

Mr.  Nowell, 
Mr.  Foxcroft, 
Mr.  Whyte, 
Mr.  Cooke, 
Mr.  Ballard, 
Mr.  Wright, 
Mr.  Whetcombe, 
Mr.  Smith, 
Mr.  Revell, 
Mr.  Davis, 
Mr.  Eaton, 
Mr.  Colbrand. 


Mr.  Deputy  acquainted  this  Court,  that  the  espe- 
cial cause  of  their  meeting  was  to  give  answer  to 
divers  gentlemen,  intending  to  go  into  New-Eng- 
land, whether  or  no  the  chief  government  of  the 
Plantation,  together  with  the  patent,  should  be  set- 
tled in  New-England,  or  here.~  Whereupon  it  was 
ordered,  that  this  afternoon  Mr.  Wright,  Mr.  Eaton, 
Mr.  Adams,  Mr.  Spurstowe,  and  such  others  as  they 


*  See  note  ^  on  preceding  page. 

2  Only  two  days  before,  namely, 
on  the  26th  of  August,  a  mutual 
agreement  had  been  made  and  sign- 
ed at  Cambridge,  by  Saltonstall, 
Winthrop,  Johnson,  Dudley,  Hum- 
phrey, Nowell,  Pynchon,  Thomas 
Sharpe,William  A^assall,  and  others, 
that  they  would  embark  with  their 
families  for  the  Plantation  in  New- 


England,  by  the  first  of  March  next, 
to  inhabit  and  continue  there,  pro- 
vided that  before  the  last  of  Septem- 
ber next  the  whole  government, 
together  with  the  patent  for  the  said 
Plantation,  be  first,  by  an  order  of 
Court,  legally  transfeired  and  estab- 
lished to  remain  with  them  and 
others  who  shall  inhabit  upon  the 
said  Plantation. 


BE    TRANSFERRED    TO    NEW-EXGLAND?  87 

should  think  fit  to  call  unto  them,  whether  they  were  chap. 

*^  in. 

of  the  Company  or  not,  to   consider  of  arguments 

against  the  settling  of  the  chief  government  in  New- 
England  ;  and  on  the  other  side.  Sir  Richard  Salton- 
stall,  Mr.  Johnson,  Capt.  Venn,  and  such  others  as 
they  should  call  unto  them,  to  prepare  arguments 
for  the  settling  of  the  said  government  in  New-Eng- 
land ;  and  that  to-morrow  morning,  being  the  29th 
of  August,  at  7  of  the  clock,  both  sides  should  meet 
and  confer  and  weigh  each  other's  arguments,  and 
afterwards  at  9  of  the  clock,  (which  is  the  time  ap- 
pointed of  meeting  for  a  General  Court,)  to  make 
report  thereof  to  the  whole  Company,  who  then  will 
determine  this  business. 


A  General  Court  at  Mr.  Deputy's  house,  the  29th  of  29. 
August,  1629.     Present, 

Mr.  Deputy,  Mr.  Harwood,  Treasurer, 

Sir  Richard  Saltoxstall,         Mr.  Perry, 

Mr.  Joh^-son,  Mr.  Foxcroft, 

Mr.  Davenport,  Mr.  Davis, 

Mr.  Aldersey,  Mr.  Iroxsyde, 

Mr.  Humfrey,  Mr.  Pinchon, 

Capt.  Waller,  "  Mr.  William  Vassall, 

Capt.  Venn,  Mr.  Rom^e, 

Mr.  Ada3Is,  ]\Ir.  Ballard, 

Mr.  Eaton,  Mr.  Nowell, 

]\Ir.  Samuel  Vassall,  Mr.  Webb, 

Mr.  Wright,  Mr.  Whetcombe, 

Mr.  Colston,  Mr.  Colbrand. 

Mr.  Pocock, 

This  day  the  Committees  which  were  appointed  to 
meet  yesterday  in  the  afternoon  to  consider  of  argu- 
ments pro  et  contra  touching  the  settling  of  the  gov- 


88  THE    TRANSFER    RESOLVED   UPON. 

CHAP,  ernment  of  the  Company's  Plantation  in  New-Eng- 
• — "-'  land,  being  according  to  the  order  of  the  last  Court, 
1629.  YiiQi  together,  debated  their   arguments  and  reasons 
"^2^9^*  on  both  sides  ;  where  were  present  many  of  the  As- 
sistants  and  Generality ;   and  after  a  long   debate, 
Mr.  Deputy  put  it  to  the  question,  as  followeth  : 

As  many  of  you  as  desire  to  have  the  patent  and 
the  government  of  the  Plantation  to  be  transferred  to 
New-England,  so  as  it  may  be  done  legally,  hold  up 
your  hands.  So  many  as  will  not,  hold  up  your  hands. 
When,  by  erection  of  hands,  it  appeared  by  the 
general  consent  of  the  Company,  that  the  govern- 
ment and  patent  should  be  settled  in  New-England, 
and  accordingly  an  Order  to  be  drawn  up.-^ 


'  19.'   A    General  Court  holden  at  Mr.  Deputy's  house,   the 
19th  of  Sept.  1629.     Present, 

Mr.  Matthew  Cradock,  Governor,  Mr.  Colson, 

Mr.  Thomas  Goff,  Deputy,  Mr.  Pinchon, 

Mr.  Geotjge  Harwood,  Treasurer,  Mr.  Hutchins, 

Mr.  Spukstowe,  Mr.  Perrv, 

Mr.  Pocock,  Mr.  Whetcomee, 
Mr.  Wrighte,                      '  and  others. 

'  It  has  been  justly  remarked  that  of  the  territory,  under  such  forms  of 

a  transaction  similar  to  this  in  all  its  government     and     magistracy      as 

circumstances,   is  not   easily   to  be  should  be  fit  and   necessary.     But 

met  with  in  story.  It  certainly  stands  the  boldness  of  the  step  is  not  more 

alone  in  the  history  of  English  colo-  striking  than  the  silent  acquiescence 

nization.     The  power  of  the  Corpo-  of  the  King  in  peniiitting  it  to  take 

ration  to  make  the  transfer  has  been  place.     See  the  whole   matter   dis- 

scriously  doubted  and  even  denied,  cussed  in  Grahame's  History  of  the 

It  is  evident  from  the  Charter,  that  United  States,  i.  221-22-t ;    Robert- 

the  original  design  of  it  was  to  con-  son's   History   of  America,  ch.  x.  ; 

stitute  a  corporation  in  England  like  Chahuers's  Political  Annals,  p.  151  ; 

that   of  the   East   India   and  other  Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  13  ;  and  Sto- 

grcat    Companies,    with  powers  to  ry's  Commentaries  on  the  Constitu- 

settle  plantations  within  the  limits  tion,  i.  50. 


THE    AFFAIR    OF    THE    BROWXES. 


89 


At  this  Court  letters^  were  read  from  Capt.  Endi-  cha? 

III. 
cott  and  others  from  New-England.     And  whereas  a  

difference  hath  fallen  out  betwixt  the  Governor  there  ^^~^' 
and  Mr.  John  and  Samuel  Browne,  it  was  agreed  by  ^g^,^' 
the  Court,  that  for  the  determination  of  those  differ- 
ences, Mr.  John  and  Samuel  Browne  might  choose 
any  three  or  four  of  the  Company  on  their  behalf,  to 
hear  the  said  differences,  the  Company  choosing  as 
many.^  Whereupon  the  said  Mr.  John  and  Samuel 
Browne  made  choice  of  Mr.  Samuel  Vassall,^  and 
Mr.  William  Vassall,  Mr.  Symon   Whetcombe,   and 


'  These  letters  are  unfortunately 
missing. 

^  This  certainly  seems  to  be  a 
very  fair  course  of  proceeding  to- 
wards the  Brownes,  whose  case  will 
be  more  circumstantially  stated 
hereafter.  And  yet  Chalmers  says,  • 
"  When  the  persons  who  had  been 
thus  expelled,  arrived  in  England, 
they  naturally  applied  to  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Company  for  reparation  of 
their  wTongs ;  but  it  appears  not  from 
their  records  that  they  ever  received 
any  redress.  The  insolence  of  con- 
tempt was  superadded  to  the  injus- 
tice of  power.  —  The  General  Court 
was  at  that  time  too  much  occupied 
in  preparing  for  an  important  change, 
to  attend  to  the  first  duty  of  all  nil- 
ers,  to  give  protection  to  the  injur- 
ed." Chalmers's  Political  Annals, 
p.  146. 

^  Samuel  A'assall  was  the  son  of 
the  gallant  John  A'assall,  an  alder- 
man of  London,  who  in  1588,  at  his 
own  expense  fitted  out  and  com- 
manded two  ships  of  war  against  the 
Spanish  Armada.  Samuel  was  like- 
wise an  aldennan  of  London,  and  an 
eminent  merchant,  and  represented 
that  city  in  t\vo  successive  Parlia- 
ments, in  1610  and  1641.  In  1628 
he  was  the  first  who  refused  to  sub- 
mit to  the  tax  of  tonnage  and  pound- 
age, for  which  his  goods  were  seized 
and  his  person  imprisoned  by  the 
Star  Chamber  Court.    In  Julv,  1611, 


Parliament  voted  him  £10,445  125. 
2d.  for  the  damages  he  had  thus 
sustained,  and  resolved  that  he 
should  be  further  considered  for  his 
imprisonment  and  personal  suffer- 
ings. He  was  one  of  the  300  mem- 
bers who  signed  the  protestation  to 
support  the  liberty  of  Parliament, 
and  subscribed  jC1200  against  the 
rebels  in  Ireland,  his  name  appear- 
ing at  the  head  of  the  list.  In  1643 
he  took  the  covenant,  and  in  1646 
was  appointed  one  of  the  commis- 
sioners for  the  kingdom  of  England 
for  the  conservation  of  the  peace 
with  Scotland.  He  never  came  over 
to  this  country,  and  I  have  not  been 
able  to  ascertain  when  he  died.  His 
son  John  settled  in  Jamaica,  and 
John's  grandson,  Florentius  Vassall, 
Esq.,  of  London,  in  1766  sent  over 
a  marble  monument  in  honor  of  his 
great-grandfather,  Samuel,  which 
was  set  up  in  King's  Chapel,  in 
Boston,  where  it  is  still  to  be  seen. 
From  the  inscription  on  this  monu- 
ment I  have  derived  the  greater  part 
of  the  preceding  account.  The  late 
Lord  Holland  manned  Elizabeth,  a 
grand-daughter  of  Florentius  A'as- 
.«all.  Sec  Greenwood's  Hist,  of 
King's  Chapel,  pp.  131,  207  ; 
Burke's  Hist,  of  the  Commoners  of 
Great  Britain,  i.  499  ;  Rushworth's 
Hist.  Coll.  i.  641,  Appendix,  p.  57; 
and  Mass.  Hist.  Coll,  xxviii.  294. 


90  SHIPS    RETURNED    FROI\r    NEW-ENGLAND. 

CHAP.  Mr.  William  Pincliion  ;   and  for   the  Company  there 

^^ — -^  were  chosen  Mr.  John  Whyte,  Mr.  John  Davenport, 

16  29.  Mr.  Isaac  Johnson,  and  Mr.  John  Wynthropp  ;  who, 

^^P*-   with  the  Governor  or  Deputy,  are  to  determine  and 

end  the  business  the  first  Tuesday  in  the  next  term  ; 

and  if  any  of  the  aforenamed  parties  be  absent,  others 

to  be  chosen  by  either  [of  the]  parties  in  their  stead. 

For  the  unlading  of  the  ships  now  come,  viz.  the 

Lion's  Whelp   and  the  Talbot,   it  was   desired  that 

the   Governor  and  Deputy  would  take    such  order 

therein  as  they  should  think  fit. 

And  lastly  for  the  five  boys  returned  from  New- 
England  upon  the  Talbot,  it  is  to  be  advised  on  what 
course  to  be  taken  for  their  punishment,  either  by 
procuring  Mr.  Recorder  his  warrant,  by  complaining 
to  the  Judge  of  the  Admiralty,  or  otherwise. 


^^'    A   General   Court   liolden   at   Mr.  Deputy's  house,    on 
Tuesday,  the  29th  of  Sept.  1629.     Present, 

Mr.  Matthew  Cradock,  Governor,    Mr.  Andrews, 

Me.  Thomas  Goff,  Deputy,  Mr.  Roe, 

Capt.  Waller,  Mr.  Revell, 

Capt.  Venn,  Mr.  Huson, 

Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright,  Mr.  Webb, 
Mr.  Thobias  Adams,                         .  Mr.  Woodgate, 

Mr.  George  Foxcroft,  Mr.  Puliston, 

Mr.  Richard  Perry,  Mr.  Bateman, 

Mr.  Nowell,  Mr.  Wx-nche. 
Mr.  Symon  Whetcombe, 

At  this  Court  were  read  the  Orders  made  the  28th 
and  29th  of  August  last,  concerning  the  transferring 
of  the  patent  and  government  of  the  Plantation  into 


LETTERS    FROM    THE    BROWNES.  91 

New-England.     But  that  business  being  of  great  and  chap. 

weighty  consequence,  is  thought  fit  to  be  deferred  

for  determination  until  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  1*^^29. 
Johnson,  and  other  gentlemen  be  come  up  to  Lon-     29/ 
don,  and  may  be  here  present  ;   and  in  the  mean 
time  it  was  propounded  that  a  committee  should  be 
appointed, 

To  prepare  the  business  ; 

To  take  advice  of  learned  counsel  whether  the 
same  may  be  legally  done  or  no  ; 

By  what  way  or  means  the  same  may  be  done,  to 
correspond  with  and  not  to  prejudice  the  govern- 
ment here  ; 

To  consider  of  the  time  when  it  will  be  fit  to  do  it ; 

To  resolve  on  whom  to  confer  the  government ; 
and  divers  other  circumstances  material  to  be  resolv- 
ed on,  &c. 

The  next  thing  taken  into  consideration  was  the 
letters  from  Mr.  John  and  Samuel  Browne  to  divers 
of  their  private  friends  here  in  England,  whether  the 
same  should  be  delivered  or  detained,  and  whether 
they  should  be  opened  and  read,  or  not.  And  for 
that  it  was  to  be  doubted  by  probable  circumstances, 
that  they  had  defamed  the  country  of  New-England, 
and  the  Governor  and  government  there,  it  was 
thought  fit  that  some  of  the  said  letters  should  be 
opened  and  publicly  read,  which  was  done  accord- 
ingly ;  and  the  rest  to  remain  at  Mr.  Deputy's  house, 
and  the  parties  to  whom  they  are  directed  to  have 
notice,  and  Mr.  Governor,  Mr.  Deputy,  Mr.  Treas- 
urer, and  Mr.  Wright,  or  any  two  of  them,  are  en- 
treated to  be  at  the  opening  and  reading  thereof,  to 
the  end  the  Company  may  have  notice,  if  aught  be 


92  THE    SHIP    ExVGLE    TO    BE    BOUGHT. 

CHAP,  inserted  therein  which  may  be  prejudicial  to  their 

.• — ~  government  or  Plantation  in  New-England.     And  it 

1^^^'  is  also  thought  fit  that  none  of  the  letters  from  Mr. 

29.  *   Samuel  Browne  shall  be  delivered,  but  kept  to  be 

made  use  of  against  him  as  occasion  shall  be  offered. 

The   business  of  clearing  the  two    ships  ^  lately 

come  home,  paying  and  discharging  the  men,  and 

housing  the  goods,  is  recommended  to  the  care  of 

Mr.  Deputy,  who  hath  undertaken  the  same. 

It  is  also  thought  fit  and  ordered,  that  the  Secre- 
tary shall  write  out  a  copy  of  the  former  grant  to  the 
Earl  of  Warwick  and  others,^  which  was  by  them 
resigned  to  this  Company,  to  be  presented. to  his 
Lordship,  he  having  desired  the  same. 

The  Governor  moved  to  know  the  resolution  of 
the  Company  concerning  buying  the  ship  Eagle  ; 
and  it  was  concluded  on,  as  formerly,  that  the  said 
ship  should  be  bought  by  those  hereafter  named, 
viz. 


The  Governok, 

i 

Mr.  Revell, 

The  Deputy, 

tV 

Mr.  Aldersey, 

Mr.  Adams, 

i 

Mr.  Milburne, 

Mr.  Wright, 

h 

Mr.  Huson, 

Mr.  Eaton, 

^ 

The  Company, 

Mr.  Whetcombe, 

1 

1 

1 

B" 


And  Mr.  Governor  is  desired  to  go  on  and  conclude 
the  bargain  upon  such  terms  as  he  can.     And  it  was 

*  The  Lion's  Whelp  and  the  Tal-  England  Colonies.     Winthrop  says 

hot.     See  page  90.  in  his  Journal,  Jidy  9,  1634,  that  he 

^  This  was  the  grant  made  March  "  received  a  letter  from  the  Earl  of 
19,  1028,  by  the  Council  for  the  Af-  Warwick,  wherein  he  congratulated 
fairs  of  New-England  to  Sir  Henry  the  prosperity  of  our  Plantation,  and 
Roswell  and  his  associates,  and  by  encouraged  our  proceedings,  and 
them  transferred  to  the  Massachu-  offered  his  help  to  further  us  in  it." 
setts  Company.  Sir  Robert  War-  See  pp.  2.9-30,  and  Savage's  Win- 
wick  was  a  member  of  that  Council,  throp,  i.  137. 
and  a  stanch  friend   of  the   New- 


MONEY    TO    BE    RAISED.  93 

further  thouofht  fit   and  resolved  on,  that  this  ship,  chap. 
being  of  good  force,  and  bought  for  the  safety  and  — — — 
honor  and  benefit  of  the  Plantation,  shall  always  be  ^^^9- 
preferred  in  that  voyage  before  any  other  ship,^  and     29.* 
to  have  some  consideration  in  her  freight  above  other 
ships  accordingly. 

It  is  also  thought  fit,  for  the  present  raising  of 
money,  that  sale  be  made  of  the  beaver  skins  ;  and 
to  that  purpose  a  rate  was  now  set  upon  them  of  20s. 
per  pound.  And  Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright  being  here 
present,  is  to  have  time  till  to-morrow  to  accept  of 
them  at  that  rate,  or  to  return  his  answer  ;  and  in 
the  mean  time  the  skins  not  to  be  sold  under  that 
rate,  the  sale  of  them  being  referred  to  Mr.  Gov- 
ernor and  Mr.  Deputy. 

Also  some  speech  was  had  concerning  the  deliv- 
ery of  the  petition  to  the  Lords  of  the  Council.  But 
this  is  deferred  till  their  Lordships'  coming  to  London. 

Mr.  Treasurer  and  Mr.  Adams  are  desired  to  make 
an  abstract  of  those  who  are  behind  with  their  sub- 
scriptions, to  the  end  some  course  may  be  taken  to 
call  in  for  those  moneys. 

For  the  twelve  cows,  and  three  calves,  and  two 
mares,  and  two  foals,  it  is  thought  fit  that  they  be 
forthwith  sold,  rather  than  kept  at  charges  all  this 
winter  ;  which  is  recommended  to  the  care  of  Mr. 
Bateman  and  Mr.  Huson. 

Also  concerning  the  five  boys  returned  in  the  Tal- 
bot, Mr.  Whetcombe  and  Mr.  Noell  are  desired  to 
acquaint  Sir  Henry  Martyn  with  their  misdemeanour, 

'  Her  name  wusaftenvaixlschang-  son,  Esq.,  one  of  the  Assistants  of 

ed  to  the  ArbeUa,   in  honor  of  the  the  Massachusetts   Company.     See 

Lady  ArbeUa,  daughter  of  the  Earl  Edward   Johnson's  Hist,   of  New- 

of  Lincohi,  and  wife  of  Isaac  John-  England,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll,  xii.  79. 


94  LETTERS    FROM    NEW-ENGLAND. 

CHAP,  and  to  advise  what  punishment  may  be  inflicted  upon 

- — —  them,   and  how  the   Company  may  be  legally  dis- 

^^^^-  charsfed  of  them. 

St 

"^29.        Upon  the  desire  of  Mr.  John  and  Samuel  Browne, 

it  is  thought  fit  and  ordered,  that  they  should  have 
a  copy  of  the  accusation  sent  from  New-England 
against  them,  to  the  end  they  may  be  the  better  pre- 
pared to  make  answer  thereunto. 

Mr.  Wright  is  desired  to  take  care  of  the  sale  of 
the  clapboard  and  other  wood. 

Also,  letters  from  Robert  Moulton,  the  shipwright, 
and  from  the  coopers  and  cleavers  of  wood,  consist- 
ing of  divers  particulars,  were  now  read  ;  which  are 
to  be  abbreviated,  and  fitting  answers  to  be  made 
unto  them,  by  the  return  of  the  next  ships  to  New- 
England. 


Oct.    A  General  Court  at  the  Deputy's  house,  on  Thursday, 
^^'  the  Idth  of  October,  1629.     Present, 

Mr.  Matthew  Cradock,  Governor,  Mr.  George  Foxcroft, 

Mr.  George  Harwood,  Treasurer,  Mr.  Incre.\se  Noell, 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  Ballard, 

Mr.  John  Davenport,  Mr.  Revell, 

Mr.  Isaac  Johnson,  Mr.  Dudley, 

Mr.  Samuel  Aldersey,  Mr.  Winthrop, 

Mr.  John  Humfry,  Mr.  Webb, 

Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright,  Mr.  Huson, 

Mr.  John  Venn,  Mr.  Young, 

Mr.  Thomas  Adams,  Mr.  Whichcoyte, 

Mb.  William  Vassall,  Mr.  Crane, 

Mr.  Symon  Whetcombe,  Mr.  Owen  Roe,^ 

Mr.  WiLLIAiM  PiNCHION,  Mr.  FoRD, 

With  divers  others  of  the  Generality. 

^  Owen  Rowe  was  a  silk-mercer     the  Rebellion,"  says  Anthony  Wood, 
in  London.     "In  the  b'-Timung  of    "  beinn-   a   violent  Covenanter,  and 


THE    JOINT    STOCK    OF    THE    COMPANY.  95 

The  especial  and  only  occasion  of  this  meeting  chap. 
being  to  consider  and  resolve  of  the  settling  the 
trade  in  New-England,  (now  upon  transferring  the 
government  thither,)  for  the  encouragement  as  w^ell 
of  the  adventurers  in  the  joint  stock  here,  as  of  those 
who  already  are,  and  of  others  who  intend  to  go  over 
in  person  to  be  planters  there,  and  for  their  mutual 
correspondency  and  behoof,  and  the  advancement  of 
the  Plantation  to  the  end  which  was  at  first  intended; 
the  Court  took  the  same  into  due  and  mature  consid- 
eration ;  and  after  a  long  debate,  and  sundry  opin- 
ions given,  and  reasons  why  the  joint  stock,  (which 
had  borne  the  brunt  of  the  charge  hitherto,  and  was 
likely  to  bear  much  more,)  should  have  certain  com- 
modities appropriate  thereunto,  for  reimbursement 
and  defrayment  thereof,  and  divers  objections  being 
made  to  those  reasons,  all  which  was  largely  dis- 
cussed and  w^ell  weighed,  the  Court,   in  conclusion, 

afterwards  an  Independent,  he  was  Charles  I.  to  come  in,  he  surrendered 
by  Cromwell's  interest  made  a  prime  himself;  so  that  after  his  trial  had 
officer  (lieutenaiit  colonel,  I  think)  in  passed  in  the  sessions-houss  in  the 
the  militia  of  London,  and  became  a  Old-Bailey,  he  was  condemned  to 
firebrand  in  that  city,  and  an  enemy  perpetual  imprisonment,  and  his  es- 
to  its  ancient  civil  governnaent.  In  tate  confiscated.  What  became  of 
1648  he  was  nominated  one  of  the  him  afterwards,  I  know  not."  He 
King's  judges,  sat  on  the  bench  was  scout-master  general  in  Crom- 
when  he  was  several  times  before  well's  army,  and  being  in  his  suite 
them,  stood  up  as  consenting  when  when  he  visited  Oxford,  in  May, 
sentence  was  passed  for  severing  his  1619,  he  received  from  the  Univer- 
head  from  his  body,  and  at  length  sity,  with  his  other  chief  officers, 
set  his  hand  and  seal  to  the  warrant  the  honorary  degree  of  INIaster  of 
for  his  execution.  About  that  time  Arts.  In  this  way  we  get  the  above 
he  was  made  keeper  of  the  maga-  lean  but  authentic  sketch  of  him 
zines  and  stores,  and  received  jL"5000  from  crabbed  Anthony.  There  is  a 
to  buy  arms.  In  1659,  July  7,  he  letter  of  Rowe"s  to  Governor  Win- 
was  constituted  colonel  of  the  mill-  throp,  dated  Feb.  18, 1636,  in  which 
tia  of  the  said  city  by  the  Rump  he  expresses  his  desire  and  intention 
Parliament,  and  was  then  in  great  to  come  to  Massachusetts,  where  it 
favor  with  them.  But  in  the  year  appears  he  had  cattle  and  desired  a 
after,  when  his  Majesty  was  restor-  farm.  See  Wood's  Fasti  Oxon.  ii. 
ed,  and  a  proclamation  thereupon  136,  (ed.  Bliss)  ;  Carlyle's  Crom- 
was  issued  out  for  all  such  persons  well,  i.  296,  364  ;  Hutchinson's  Col- 
that  had  sat  in  judgment  on  King  lection,  p.  59. 


96  CHURCHES    AND    PrBLIC   WORKS. 

CHAP,  for  accommodation  of  both  parts,  fell  upon  a  modera- 
tion/ as  followeth,  viz. 

That  the  Company's  joint  stock  shall  have  the 
trade  of  beaver  and  all  other  furs  in  those  parts 
solely,  for  the  term  of  seven  years  from  this  day,  for 
and  in  consideration  of  the  charge  that  the  joint  stock 
hath  undergone  already,  and  is  yet  annually  to  bear, 
for  the  advancement  of  the  Plantation. 

That  for  the  charge  of  fortifications,  the  Compa- 
ny's joint  stock  to  bear  the  one  half,  and  the  planters 
to  defray  the  other,  viz.  for  ordnance,  munition, 
powder,  &c.  But  for  laborers  in  building  of 
forts,  &c.  all  men  to  be  employed  in  an  equal  pro- 
portion, according  to  the  number  of  men  upon  the 
Plantation,  and  so  to  continue  until  such  fit  and 
necessary  works  be  finished. 

That  the  charge  of  the  ministers  now  there  or  that 
shall  hereafter  go  to  reside  there,  as  also  the  charge 
of  building  convenient  churches,  and  all  other  public 
w^orks  upon  the  Plantation,  be  in  like  manner  indiffe- 
rently borne,  the  one  half  by  the  Company's  joint 
stock  for  the  said  term  of  seven  years,  and  the  other 
half  by  the  planters. 

That  the  ordnance  already  provided  for  fortifica- 
tion be  rated  as  they  cost,  as  also  all  powder  and 
munition  whatsoever  concerning  arms,  so  as  the  same 
be  delivered  there  for  public  use  ;  and  this  to  be 
accounted  as  part  of  the  joint  stock  of  the  Company. 

All  which  being  several  times  read,  was  by  Mr. 
Governor  put  to  the  question,  and  by  general  con- 
sent, by  erection  of  hands,  was  agreed  and  concluded 
on,  and  ordered  accordingly. 

*  Tliat  is,  compromise. 


A    COMMITTEE    APPOINTED. 


97 


And  forasmuch  as  by  [a]  former  Order  the  patent  chap 


III. 


and  government  is  to  be  transferred  to  New-Eng- 
land, a  Committee  is  appointed,  part  of  the  adven-  i^^^- 
turers  here,  and  part  of  those  that  intend  to  go  over,    ^5*' 


VIZ. 


Mr.  Davenport, 
Mr.  Wright, 
Mr.  Perry, 
Capt.  Waller, 
Capt,  Venn, 
Mr.  Adams, 
Mr.  Whetcombe, 
Mr.  Young, 
Mr.  Spurstowe,  and 
Mr.  Reyell. 


Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,' 

Mr.  Johnson, 

Mr.  Winthrop, 

Mr.  Humfry, 

Mr.  Dudley, 

Mr.  Vassall, 

Mr.  Pinchon,  and 

Mr.  Downing.^ 


Who  are  desired  to  meet  to-morrow  mornino;,  to 
confer  of  and  draw  fit  and  convenient  clauses  to  be 
inserted  in  Articles  of  Agreement,  which  may  be 
commodious  for  either  part,  and  to  prepare  the  same 
for  a  Court  of  Assistants,  appointed  that  afternoon 
to  determine  thereof. 


^  Those  in  the  second  column,  I 
suppose,  intended  to  go  over. 

^  Emanuel  Downing-  was  of  the 
Inner  Temple,  and  married  a  sister 
of  GoAernor  Winthrop.  He  came 
over,  I  suppose,  in  1638,  for  I  find 
it  stated  in  the  Colony  Records,  that 
on  the  14th  of  December  of  that 
year,  "  Mr.  Endicott  and  ]Mr.  John 
Winthrop,  Jr.  had  order  to  give  Mr, 
Emanuel  Downing  the  oath  of  free- 
dom."  He  resided  at  Salem,  which 


he  represented  five  years  in  the 
General  Court.  He,  and  not  Cali- 
bute  Downing,  (as  is  erroneously 
stated  by  Anthony  Wood,)  was  the 
father  of  the  notorious  Sir  George 
Downing.  Simon  Bradstreet,  an 
Assistant,  and  afterwards  Governor 
of  the  Colony,  married  a  daughter 
of  Emanuel  Downing.  See  Wood's 
Athen.  Oxon.  iii.  108,  (ed.  Bliss)  ; 
Hutchinson's  Mass.  18,  111  ;  Win- 
throp's  N.  E.  i.  49,  100,  ii.  240, 369. 


1629 
Oct 


98  MANAGEMENT    OF    THE    JOINT    STOCK. 

CHAP.  j[  Court  of  Assistants  at  the  Deputifs  house,  on  Friday, 
the  16th  of  October,  1629.     Present, 

Mr.  Mattii.  Cradock,  Governor,  Mr.  G.  Harwood,  Treasurer, 

16.     Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mk.  Winthrop, 

Mr.  Isaac  Johnson,       -i    ;,• .  Mr.  Htjson, 

Mr.  Dudley,  Mr.  Whetcombe, 

Mr.  John  Humfry,  Mr.  Perry, 

Mr.  Willia3I  Vassall,  Mr.  Pocock, 

Mr.  Revell,  Mr.  Spurstowe, 

Mr.  George  Foxcroft,  Mr.  Pinchon, 

Mr.  Adams,  Capt.  Venn, 

Mr.  Samuel  Vassall. 

This  Court  was  appointed  to  treat  and  resolve, 
upon  the  transferring  of  the  government  to  New- 
England,  what  government  shall  be  held  at  London, 
whereby  the  future  charge  of  the  joint  stock  may  be 
cherished  and  preserved,  and  the  body  politic  of  the 
Company  remain  and  increase  ; 

What  persons  shall  have  the  charge  of  the  man- 
aging of  the  joint  stock  both  at  London  and  in  New- 
England  ;  wherein  it  is  conceived  fit  that  Capt.  En- 
decott  continue  the  government  there,  unless  just 
cause  to  the  contrary. 

These  and  other  things  were  largely  discussed ; 
and  it  was  thought  fit  and  natural  that  the  govern- 
ment of.  persons  be  held  there,  the  government  of 
trade  and  merchandises  to  be  here. 

That  the  joint  stock  being  mutual,  both  here  and 
there,  that  some  fit  persons  be  appointed  for  man- 
aging thereof  in  both  places. 

But  for  that  there  is  a  great  debt  owing  by  the 
joint  stock,  it  was  moved  that  some  course  might  be 
taken  for  clearing  thereof  before  the  government  be 


Oct. 
16. 


LETTERS    TO    ENDICOTT    AND    HIGGINSON.  99 

transferred  ;  and  to  this  purpose  it  was  first  thought  chap. 

fit  that  the  accounts  should  be   audited,  to  see  what 

the  debt  is.  But  the  business  not  admitting  any  such  1629. 
delay,  it  was  desired  that  Mr.  Governor  and  Mr. 
Treasurer  would  meet  to-morrow,  and  make  an  esti- 
mate of  the  debts,  and  prepare  the  same  against  a 
meeting  to  be  on  Monday  next,  to  determine  this 
question. 

The  ship  Eagle  is  to  be  freighted  from  Bristol. 

Lastly,  letters  were  read  and  signed  to  Mr.  Ende- 
cott,  Mr.  Skelton,  and  Mr.  Higgison,  as  appears  by 
the  entries  of  them  in  the  book  of  copies  of  letters.^ 


A  Meeting  at  Mr.  Deputy's  house,  on  Monday,  the  \^th 

of  October,  1629.     Present,  19. 

Mr,  Matthew  Cradock,  Governor,  Mr.  Foxcroft, 

Mr.  George  Harwood,  Treasurer,  Sir  R.  Saltonstall, 

Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright,  Mr.  Isaac  Johnson, 

Capt.  Venn,  Mr.  Davenport, 

Mr.  Pinchon,  Mr.  Whyte,  the  preacher, 

Mr.  William  Vassall,  Mr.  Whyte,"  the  counsellor, 

Mr.  Huson,  Mr.  Wynthropp, 

Mr.  Noell,  Mr.  Dudley. 

Mr.  Adams, 

The  occasion  of  this  meeting  being  to  resolve  of 
the  alteration  of  the  government,  and  therein  to  con- 


'  These  letters,  in  the  handwrit-  -  This    was    prohably    the    Mr. 

ing  of  Burgess,  the   Secretary,  are  White,  described  by  Clarendon  as 

preserved  in  the  first  book  of  Deeds  "a  grave   lawyer,   but  notoriously 

in   the   Registry   of  Suffolk.     The  disaflectcd  to  the  Church,"  who  was 

MS.  is  probably  a  part  of  the  origi-  chairman  of  the  parliamentary  com- 

nal    Letter-Book   here   referred  to.  mittee   on   religion    in    1640.     See 

They  wdl  be  found  in  another  part  Clarendon's  Rebellion,  i.  348. 
of  this  volume. 


100  THE    PLANTERS    AND    ADVENTURERS. 

CHAP,  sider  how  the  debts  upon  the  jomt  stock  shall  be  first 
— '-^  discharged,  and  how  the  same  shall  be  hereafter  man- 
1629.  asred  ;  and  herein  what  was  formerly  treated  on  was 
iq'  again  related.  And  for  that  divers  questions  will 
arise  to  be  determined  in  this  business,  which  will 
take  up  much  time,  and  cannot  be  so  conveniently 
done  at  a  Court,  it  was  thought  fit  that  certain  com- 
mittees be  appointed,  on  either  part,  to  meet  and 
make  propositions  each  to  other,  and  set  the  same 
down  in  writing  ;  and  if  they  can,  to  agree  and  con- 
clude of  a  fit  end  to  be  made  for  the  good  of  the 
Plantation  ;  and  if  any  differences  happen  which  they 
cannot  agree  on,  that  then  the  same  be  referred  to  the 
umpirage  and  determination  of  some  of  the  preach- 
ers, to  be  chosen  to  that  purpose  ;  who  are  desired 
to  set  down  in  writing  what  they  shall  think  in  con- 
science is  fit  to  be  done  indifferently  for  the  good  of 
the  work  and  the  encouragement  both  of  planters 
and  adventurers.  And  to  this  purpose.  Articles  be- 
tween the  planters  and  adventurers  for  performance 
of  what  shall  be  determined,  was  now  drawn  by  Mr. 
Whyte,  the  counsellor,  read  and  approved,  and  are 
to  be  presented  to-morrow  at  a  General  Court,  to  be 
ratified,  and  then  sealed  ;  and  at  that  Court  the  Go- 
vernor and  Assistants  to  be  chosen  for  the  govern- 
ment in  New-England. 


THE    PURCHASE    OF   THE    EAGLE    CONFIRMED.  101 

A  General  Court  holden  at  Mr.  Goff,  the  Deputy's  house,  ^^if  ^• 
on  Tuesday,  the  20th  of  October,  1629.    Present, 

Mr.  Matthew  Cradock,  Governor,  Mr.  Davenport,  )    i    t,   i 
Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  Whyte,         ' 

Mr.  Isaac  Johnson,  Mr.  Winthrop, 

Capt.  John  Venn,  Mr.  Dudley, 

Mr.  [Samuel]  Aldersey,  Mr.  Puliston, 

Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright,  Mr.  Ballard, 

Mr.  George  Harwood,  Treasurer,    Mr.  Job  Bradshaw, 
Mr.  John  Humfry,  Mr.  Cooke, 

Mr.  William  Vassall,  Mr.  Revell, 

Mr.  William  Pinchon,  Capt.  Waller, 

Mr.  George  Foxcroft,  Mr.  Ballard,^ 

Mr.  Increase  Noell,  Mr.  Woodgate, 

Mr.  Christopher  Colson,  Mr.  Stephens, 

Mr.  Richard  Perry,  Mr.  Francis  Flyer, 

Mr.  Thomas  Adams,  Mr.  Spurstowe, 

Mr.  John  Pocock,  Mr.  Huson, 

Mr.  Thomas  Hutchins,  Mr.  Roe, 

Mr.  Webb, 
Assistants.  With  some  others  of  the  Generality. 

Mr.  Governor  caused  to  be  read  the  Order  formerly 
made  concerning  the  buying  of  the  ship  E  agle  ; 
and  desired  to  know  the  pleasure  of  the  Court  for 
confirmation  thereof  Whereupon  some  debate  be- 
ing had,  the  Order  was  well  approved  of;  but  for 
that  it  is  wished  that  the  gentlemen  that  are  to  go 
over  should  have  the  l  part  of  the  said  ship  which 
was  formerly  allotted  to  the  Company,  (the  Company 
being  out  of  cash,  and  for  other  reasons,)  they  not 
having  notice  thereof  till  now,  desired  time  till  the 
afternoon  to  consider  thereof,  and  to  give  their  an 

*  Clergymen. 

*  Mr.  Ballard's  name  is  probably  repeated  by  mistake. 


Oct. 

20. 


102  ARTICLES    OF    AGREEMENT. 

CHAP,  swer  ;  which  was  condescended  unto,  and  the  same 

III-  .  T  1 

— —  is  then  to  be  determined  accordmgly. 

1629.  After  which  Mr.  Governor  acquainted  those  pre- 
sent, that  the  especial  occasion  of  summoning  this 
Court  was  for  the  election  of  a  new  Governor,  Dep- 
uty, and  Assistants,  the  government  being  to  be 
transferred  into  New-England,  according  to  the  for- 
mer Order  and  resolution  of  the  Company.  But  be- 
fore the  Court  proceeded  to  the  said  election,  certain 
Articles  of  Agreement,  conceived  at  a  meeting  yes- 
terday between  the  adventurers  here  at  home  and 
the  planters  that  are  to  go  over,  as  well  for  the  man- 
aging and  settling  of  the  joint  stock,  as  for  reconcil- 
ing of  any  differences  that  may  happen  upon  this 
change  of  government,  was  now  read,  and  recom- 
mended to  the  Court  for  their  approbation,  and  for 
the  nomination  and  appointment  of  a  competent  num- 
ber of  committees,  to  meet  and  treat  and  resolve  of 
these  businesses.  The  Articles  themselves  were 
approved  of,  and  five  committees  on  either  part  were 
thereupon  chosen,  viz.  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr. 
Winthrop,  Mr.  Dudley,  Mr.  Johnson,  and  Mr.  Hum- 
fry,  for  the  planters  ;  and  for  the  adventurers  was 
chosen  Mr.  Governor,  Mr.  Aldersey,  Mr.  Wright, 
Mr.  Hutchins,  and  Capt.  Venn.  And  in  case  the 
said  committee,  or  the  greater  number  of  them, 
should  differ  in  any  one  or  more  particulars,  and  not 
agree  thereon,  there  was  chosen  for  umpires  Mr. 
Whyte,  the  counsellor,  Mr,  Whyte,  of  Dorchester, 
and  Mr.  Davenport,^  to  whom  the  decision  and  de- 

'  .Tdhn    Davenport    was   born   in  the   degrees   of  A.  M.   and  B.  D. 

1597,  at  Coventry,  of  which  city  his  He  became  a  noted  preacher  among 

father  was  mayor.     He  was  educa-  the  Puritans,  and  at  length  minister 

ted   at  Oxford,  where   he  received  of   St.   Stephen's,   Coleman-street, 


JOHN    DAVENPORT,    OF    NEW    HAVEN. 


103 


termination  of  all  such  differences  is  referred,  accord-  chap. 

III. 
mg  to  the  tenure  of  the  said  Articles  of  Agreement.  

And  it  being  further  taken  into  consideration,  that  in  1^29. 

regard  of  the  shortness  of  the  time  limited  to  the     20. 

committees,  many  things  of  weight  and  consequence 

in  this  so  great  a  business  may  either  not  be  at  all 

thought  on,  or  otherwise  left  unresolved,  by  them 

and  the  said  umpires,  it  is  therefore  thought  fit  by 

this  Court  that  the  said  committee  and  umpires  shall 

continue  till  the  end  of  this  term  ;   and  whatsoever 

material  things  for  the  good  of  the  Plantation  shall  in 

that  time  be  treated  on  and  resolved  by  them,  the 

same  to  be  as  valid  and  effectual  as  if  it  had  been 

done  before  the  expiration  of  the  time  limited  by  the 


London.  About  the  year  1627,  he 
was  appointed  one  of  the  feoffees  for 
buying  in  of  impropriations ;  con- 
cerning which  see  note  ^  on  page  70. 
Being  persecuted  by  the  prelates  for 
his  nonconformity,  and  a  warrant 
having  been  issued  by  the  High 
Commission  to  summon  him  before 
them,  he  resigned  his  benefice  Dec. 
18,  1633,  and  fled  into  Holland. 
Archbishop  Laud  says  in  his  annual 
account  to  the  King,  dated  Jan.  2, 
1634,  "  Since  my  return  out  of 
Scotland,  Mr.  John  Davenport,  vicar 
of  St.  Stephen's  in  Coleman-street, 
whom  I  used  with  all  moderation, 
and  about  two  years  after  thought  I 
had  settled  his  judgment,  [not  quite, 
my  Lord !]  having  him  then  at  ad- 
vantage enough  to  have  put  extrem- 
ity upon  him,  but  forbore  it,  hath 
now  resigned  his  vicarage,  declared 
his  judgment  against  conformity  with 
the  Church  of  England,  and  is  since 
gone  (as  I  hear)  to  Amsterdam." 
Here  he  preached  for  some  time  to 
the  English  congregation ;  but  on 
the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  wars, 
he  returned  to  England,  as  other 
Nonconformists  did,  and  had  a  ben- 


efice bestowed  on  him.  Not  being 
entirely  satisfied,  however,  with  the 
proceedings  there,  he  yielded  to  the 
urgent  letters  of  John  Cotton,  and 
came  over  to  New -England  in  June, 
1637,  with  Theophilus  Eaton,  who 
had  been  one  of  his  parishioners  in 
London,  and  Edward  Hopkins,  and 
with  them  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
Colony  of  New  Haven  in  1638.  In 
1668,  in  his  71st  year,  he  removed 
to  Boston  to  become  the  pastor  of 
the  First  Church,  and  died  there  in 
1670.  He  was  buried  by  the  side 
of  Cotton,  and  near  to  Governor 
Winthrop,  in  the  northern  corner  of 
King's  Chapel  grave-yard.  Increase 
Mather  wrote  some  account  of  his 
life.  See  Wood's  Athen.  Oxon.  iii. 
889,  (ed.  Bliss)  ;  Newcourt's  Re- 
pertorium,  i.  537  ;  Laud's  Troubles 
and  Trial,  pp.  348,  526  ;  Mather's 
INIagnalia,  i.  226,  292-302  ;  Win- 
throp's  N.  England,  i.  227;  Hutch- 
inson's Mass.  i.  82,  115,  215;  Em- 
erson's Hist,  of  the  First  Church 
in  Boston,  pages  110-124;  Prof. 
Kingsley's  Cent.  Discourse,  pp.  12, 
62;  Leonard  Bacon's  Historical  Dis- 
courses, pp.  75-155. 


104 


JOHN    WINTHROP,    OF    GROTON, 


Articles.  And  it  was  further  thought  fit  that  all 
such  others  of  the  Company  as  will,  may  from  time 
to  time  have  access  to  the  said  committee,  to  pro- 
pound such  things  as  they  conceive  beneficial  for  the 
business,  or  to  present  their  opinions  in  writing,  but 
not  to  debate  with  them  for  interrupting  their  pro- 
ceedings. 

All  which  being  put  to  the  question,  was  approved 
of,  and  by  erection  of  hands  ordered  accordingly. 

And  now  the  Court  proceeding  to  the  election  of 
a  new  Governor,  Deputy,  and  Assistants,  which,  upon 
serious  deliberation,  hath  been  and  is  conceived  to 
be  for  the  especial  good  and  advancement  of  their 
affairs  ;  and  having  received  extraordinary  great 
commendations  of  Mr.  John  Wynthrop,^  both  for 


'  Of  John  Winthrop,  the  first 
Governor  of  the  Massachusetts  Col- 
ony, the  narrow  limits  of  a  Note 
will  not  permit  us  to  speak  ade- 
quately or  worthily ;  and  we  must 
therefore  refer  those  who  wish  to 
know  the  particulars  of  his  life  and 
understand  his  character,  to  the  me- 
moir in  Belknap's  Am.  Biog.  ii. 
337-358,  to  the  account  given  by 
Mather,  in  the  MagnaUa,  i.  108-120, 
and  to  his  own  Journal,  or  History 
of  New-England,  (with  Savage's 
invaluable  notes,)  and  his  admirable 
letters  appended  to  both  volumes  of 
that  work.  Suffice  it  now  to  say, 
that  he  was  born  at  Groton,  in  Suf- 
folk, Jan.  12,  1588,  and  was  de- 
scended from  an  ancient  and  honor- 
able family.  He  was  bred  to  the 
law,  as  his  ancestors  had  been  be- 
fore him,  one  of  them,  Adam  Win- 
throp, having  been  an  eminent  law- 
yer in  the  reign  of  Henry  VHI. 
Such  was  the  gravity  and  steadines.s 
of  his  character,  that,  at  the  early 
age  of  eighteen,  he  was  made  a  jus- 
tice of  the  peace.  "  He  had  an  es- 
tate of  six  or  seven  hundred  pounds 
a  year,  which  he  turned  into  money, 


and  embarked  his  all  to  promote  the 
settlement  of  New-England.  It  is  a 
very  full  evidence  of  the  esteem  in 
which  he  was  held,  that,  when  many 
gentlemen  of  character,  some  of 
them  of  noble  alliance,  were  con- 
cerned in  the  same  undertaking  with 
him,  he,  by  a  general  voice,  was 
placed  at  their  head."  He  saj's 
himself,  "I  was  first  chosen  to  be 
Governor  without  my  seeking  or  ex- 
pectation, there  being  then  divers 
other  gentlemen  who,  for  their  abil- 
ities every  way,  were  far  more  fit." 
He  was  eleven  times  chosen  Gov- 
ernor, and  spent  his  whole  estate  in 
the  public  service.  His  son  John, 
and  his  grandson,  Fitz-John,  (who 
was  a  captain  in  Col.  Read's  regi- 
ment at  the  Restoration  in  1660,) 
were  successively  governors  of  Con- 
necticut Colony,  and  Wait  Still,  an- 
other grandson,  was  chief  justice  of 
Massachusetts.  Stephen,  another 
son  of  the  elder  Winthrop,  went  to 
England  in  1645  or  1646,  had  the 
command  of  a  regiment,  and  suc- 
ceeded Harrison  in  his  major-gen- 
eralship, was  a  member  of  Parlia- 
ment for  Scotland  in  1656,  and  was 


CHOSEN  GOVERNOR  OF  THE  COMPANY. 


105 


every  chap. 
*'     III. 


his  integrity  and  sufficiency,  as  being  one 
[way^]  well  fitted  and  accomplished  for  the  place  of 
Governor,  did  put  in  nomination  for  that  place  the 
said  Mr.  John  Winthrop,  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall, 
Mr.  Isaac  Johnson,  and  Mr.  John  Humfry  ;  and  the 
said  Mr.  Winthrop  was  with  a  general  vote  and  full 
consent  of  this  Court,  by  erection  of  hands,  chosen 
to  be  Governor  for  the  ensuing  year, 


to  begin 


on 


this  present  day  ;  who  was  pleased  to  accept  thereof, 
and  thereupon  took  the  oath  to  that  place  apper- 


tamms. 


much  trusted  by  the  Protector.  The 
family,  in  every  generation,  have 
occupied  high  stations,  and  been  de- 
servedly held  in  great  respect  in 
New-England.  Its  character  is  now 
worthily  sustained  by  the  Hon.  Ro- 
bert C.  Winthrop,  who  represents 
the  city  of  Boston  in  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States.  Gov.  Win- 
throp was  in  his  43d  year  when  he 
sailed  for  New-England.  He  died 
March  26,  16i9,  in  the  62d  year  of 
his  age,  and  was  buried,  AprQ  3d, 
in  the  northern  corner  of  the  King's 
Chapel  burial-ground,  in  Boston. 
His  son  John,  governor  of  Connecti- 
cut, was  interred  in  the  same  tomb 
in  April,  1676.  "  The  Green,"  the 
Governor's  town  lot,  included  the 
land  now  owned  by  the  Old  South 
Church  in  Washington-street,  and 
his  house  stood  about  opposite 
School-street.  Prince,  the  Annalist, 
who  died  in  1758,  says  that  Win- 
throp ' '  deceased  in  the  very  house 
I  dwell  in."  It  was  a  two-story 
building,  of  wood,  and  remained  till 
it  was  destroyed  by  the  British 
troops  for  fuel  in  1775.  The  Gov- 
ernor's portrait,  an  original  painting, 
hangs  in  the  Senate  Chamber  of 
Massachusetts.  —  "Sept.  6,  1631, 
there  is  granted  to  Mr.  Governor, 
600  acres  of  land,  near  his  house  at 
Mistick  "  This  was  then  and  has 
ever  since  been  called  the  Tenhills 
Farm.  April  3,  1632,  Conant's 
Island,  in  Boston  harbor,  on  which 


Fort  Warren  is  built,  was  granted 
to  him,  and  the  name  was  changed 
to  the  Governor's  Garden.  "  Nov. 
7,  1632,  there  is  about  fifty  acres  of 
meadow  ground  granted  to  John 
Winthrop,  Esq.,  present  Governor, 
lying  between  Cobbett's  house  and 
Wanottymies'  river;"  and,  ^larch 
4,  1634,  the  wear  at  Mistick  was 
granted  to  him  and  Matthew  Cra- 
dock,  of  London.  —  It  is  much  to 
be  regretted  that  Gov.  Winthrop's 
"  larger  discourse  of  all  things," 
mentioned  in  a  letter  to  his  wife, 
July  16,  1630,  and  twice  afterwards 
referred  to  in  his  letters  to  his  son, 
July  23  and  Aug.  14,  is  lost.  It 
may  have  contained  interesting  state- 
ments, not  included  in  his  Journal 
or  History.  —  In  his  magnanimity, 
disinterestedness,  and  moderation, 
in  his  mingled  firmness  of  principle 
and  mildness  of  temper,  in  his  har- 
monious character,  consistent  life, 
and  well-balanced  mind,  the  Father 
of  Massachusetts  reminds  us  of  the 
great  "  Father  of  his  country,"  and 
is  the  only  name  in  our  history 
worthy  to  stand  as  a  parallel  to 
Washington.  See  Mass.  Col. 
Records,  in  MS.,  i.  82,  85,  95,  131 ; 
Hutchinson's  [Mass.  i.  14,  151  ;  Sa- 
vage's Winthrop,  i.  64-68,  126, 
318,  396;  ii.  338,  3.57,  372,  373, 
376 ;  Thurloe's  State  Papers,  v. 
366. 

'  This  word  seems  to  have  been 
accidentally  omitted. 


106 


JOHN    HUMPHREY,    DEPUTY    GOVERNOR. 


In  like  manner,  and  with  like  free  and  full  con- 
sent, Mr.  John  Humfry^  was  chosen  Deputy  Gov- 
ernor, and 


Sir  Richard  Saltonstall, 
Mr.  Isaac  Johnson, 
Mr.  Thomas  Dudley, 
Mr.  John  Endecott, 
Mr.  Increase  Noell, 
Mr.  William  Vassall, 
Mr.  William  Pinchon, 
Mr.  Samuel  Sharpe, 
Mr.  Edward  Rossiter, 


Mr.  Thomas  Sharps, 

Mr.  John  Revell, 

Mr.  Matthew  Cradock, 

Mr.  Thomas  Goff, 

Mr.  [Samuel]  Aldersey, 

Mr.  John  Venn, 

Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright, 

Mr.  Theophilus  Eaton,  and 

Mr.  Thomas  Adams, 


were  chosen  to  be  Assistants.     Which  said  Deputy, 


'  John  Humphrey,  it  will  be  re- 
collected, was  one  of  the  six  original 
patentees  to  whom  the  grant  of 
Massachusetts  Bay  was  made  by  the 
Council  of  Plymouth.  See  page  29. 
He  was  also  one  of  the  original  pa- 
tentees of  the  Colony  of  Connecti- 
cut. It  will  be  seen  presently,  that 
he  stayed  behind,  and  did  not  come 
over  with  Winthrop,  as  he  intended. 
He  married  Susan,  daughter  of 
Thomas,  the  third  Earl  of  Lincoln, 
and  brought  her  with  their  children 
to  Massachusetts  in  1632,  and  set- 
tled at  Swampscot,  in  I^ynn.  In 
expectation  of  his  arrival,  he  was 
chosen  an  Assistant,  and  continued 
to  be  re-elected  to  that  office  as  long 
as  he  remained  in  the  Colony.  John 
Cotton,  in  a  letter  to  Lord  Saye  and 
Sele,  written  in  1636,  says,  "Mr. 
Humfrey  was  chosen  for  an  Assist- 
ant (as  I  hear)  before  the  Colony 
came  over  hither  ;  and  though  he  be 
not  as  yet  joined  into  church  fellow- 
ship (by  reason  of  the  unsettledness 
of  the  congregation  where  he  liveth,) 
yet  the  Commonwealth  do  still  con- 
tinue his  magistracy  to  him,  as  know- 
ing he  waitcth  for  opportunity  of  en- 
joying church  fellowship  shortly." 
He  was  admitted  to  the  church  in  Sa- 
lem Jan.  16, 1638.  Upon  an  invitation 
from  Lord  Say,  he  intended,  in  the 


year  1640,  to  have  removed  to  the 
Bahama  Islands ;  but  the  island  of 
Providence  being  taken  by  the  Span- 
iards, he  abandoned  that  design. 
Soon  after,  having  met  with  great 
losses  by  fire,  and  his  estate  being 
much  impaired,  he  sold  his  farm  at 
Swampscot  to  Lady  Moody,  (for 
nine  or  eleven  hundred  pounds,  says 
Lechford,)  and  returned  to  England 
October  26,  1641.  This  estate  pro- 
bably included  the  500  acres  granted 
him  by  the  General  Court  May  6, 
1635,  in  fulfilment  of  the  resolve 
passed  Nov.  7,  1632,  by  which  "it 
is  referred  to  Mr.  Turner,  Peter 
Palfry  and  Roger  Conant  to  set  out 
a  proportion  of  land  in  Saugus  to 
John  Humfry,  Esq."  Winthrop 
speaks  of  him  as  "  a  gentleman  of 
special  parts  of  learning  and  activity, 
and  a  godly  man,  who  had  been  one 
of  the  first  beginners  in  the  promot- 
ing of  this  Plantation,  and  had  labor- 
ed very  much  therein."  A  letter  of 
his  to  Winthrop,  dated  Sept.  4, 1646, 
is  preserved  in  Hutchinson's  Collec- 
tion, p.  159.  See  Mass.  Col.  Re- 
cords, in  MS.,  i.  95,  149;  Win- 
throp's  N.  E.,  i.  75,  332,  ii.  13,  26, 
46  ;  Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  15,  493, 
498;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxiii.  97; 
Hazard's  State  Papers,  i.  318; 
Trumbull's  Connecticut,  i.  495. 


MONEY    TO    BE    PAID.  107 

and   the  greatest  part  of  the  said  Assistants,  being  chap. 

present,  took  the  oaths  to  their  said  places  appertain 

ing  respectively.  ig29. 


A  Court  of  Assistants,  at  Mr.  Goff's  house,  on  Friday,   Nov. 
the  20th  of  November,  1629.     Present,  ^^' 

Mr.  John  VVynthrop,  Governor,  Mr.  Thomas  Goff,. 

Mr.  John  Hujifry,  Dep.  Gov.  Mr.  William  Pinchion, 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  [Christopher]  Colson, 

Mr.  Thomas  Dudley,  Mr.  Matthew  Cradock, 

Mr.  Thomas  Adams,  Mr.  George  Harwood, 

]\Ir.  Nathaniel  Wright,  Mr.  John  Revell, 

Mr.  [Thomas]  Hutchins,  Mr.  Increase  Noell. 

The  especial  occasion  of  this  meeting  was  to  ad- 
vise of  a  course  for  bringing  in  of  moneys  for  pay- 
ment of  mariners'  wages,  freight  of  ships,  and  other 
debts.  And  thereupon  Mr.  Cradock  acquainted 
those  present  what  sums  he  had  disbursed  for  ac- 
count of  the  Company,  and  what  more  was  owing 
for  mariners'  wages  upon  the  ships  Talbot,  May- 
flower, and  Four  Sisters,^  and  for  the  freight  of  those 
ships,  amounting  to  £1200  and  upwards  ;  which  the 
Court  think  fit  and  order  to  be  first  paid  before  any 
other  debts.  And  Mr.  Governor  desiring  to  have 
power  from  the  Court  to  grant  warrants  for  payment 
of  moneys,  as  was  formerly  accustomed,  the  same 
was  condescended  unto  ;  and  a  warrant  was  now 
made  and  signed  by  the  Governor  and  Deputy,  di- 
rected to  Mr.  Harwood,  the  Treasurer,  for  payment 
of  [<£]800  to  Mr.  Cradock,  so  soon  as  money  shall 
come  to  his  hands. 

^  Which  had  lately  returned  from  New-England,  having  carried  over 
Higginson  and  his  company. 


108  COMPLAINT    OF    THE    BROWNES. 

Some  debate  was  had  concerning  Mr.  John  and 
Samuel  Browne's  complaining  that  their  goods, 
praised^  in  New-England,  are  undervalued,  and 
divers  things  omitted  to  be  praised  ;^  wherein  they 
desire  to  have  relief,  and  justice  done.  It  is  there- 
upon thought  fit,  that  if  they  can  produce  proof 
thereof,  then  they  are  to  be  relieved  here  ;  other- 
wise, the  same  is  to  be  suspended,  and  all  the  objec- 
tions they  can  make  to  be  taken  notice  of  and  re- 
commended to  Mr.  Governor,  to  be  considered  of 
and  determined  after  his  arrival  in  New-England, 
when  he  may  hear  the  praisers'  answers  to  those 
objections  ;  and  in  the  mean  time  Mr.  Cradock  to 
pay  the  money  charged  upon  him  for  the  same. 

Mr.  Beecher,  master  of  the  ship  Talbot,  desired 
to  have  in  a  bond,  which  he  entered  into,  to  Mr. 
Pratt"  for  wages  or  allowance  to  a  chirurgeon  for  the 
Lion's  Whelp,  who  was  to  have  25.  6d.  for  every 
person  in  the  ship,  according  to  an  agreement  made 
with  them ;  the  number  of  the  persons  being  about 
125,  of  which  Mr.  Beecher  had  formerly  delivered  a 
particular  note  to  Mr.  Goff.  The  Court  conceiving 
the  said  allowance  to  be  exorbitant,  and  more  than 
is  usual  in  like  cases,  do  desire  that  the  chirurgeon 
be  appointed  to  be  here  the  next  General  Court,  and 
then  such  conclusion  is  to  be  made  with  him  as  shall 
be  fit. 

Lastly,  Mr.  Smith,  the  accomptant,  attended  them 
with  their  accounts  ;  and  after  perusal  thereof,  it 
appearing  that  divers  were  behind  with  their  whole 
subscriptions  or  part  thereof,  it  was  thought  fit  that, 

'  Ai)j)r;iised.  *  i*^'  e  note  '  tm  pn^e  52. 


ANOTHER  LETTER  FROM  EXDICOTT.  109 

for  the  present  supply  of  moneys,  tickets  should  be  chap. 

sent  unto  them  to  desire  them  to  send  in  the  sums  ^ 

by  them  underwritten  ;  to  which  purpose  a  list  of^^^^- 
their  names  and  sums  was  now  drawn  out,  and  tick-    20! 
ets  are  forthwith  to  be  made  accordingly. 


A  General  Court  on  Wednesday,  the  2oth  of  November,     25. 
1629.     Present, 

Mr.  John  Winthrop,  Governor,  Mr.  Matthew  Cradock, 

Mr.  John  Humfry,  Deputy,  Capt.  Waller, 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  Whyte, 

Mr.  Isaac  Johnson,  Mr.  Davenport, 

Mr.  Thomas  Adams,  Mr.  Huson, 

Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright,  Mr.  Backhouse, 

Mr.  Theophilus  Eaton,  Mr.  Foxcroft, 

Mr.  William  Pinchion,  Mr.  Woodgate, 

Capt.  Venn,  Me.  Bradshaw, 

Mr.  Increase  Noell,  and  others. 

A  letter^  of  the  5th  of  September  from  Mr.  Ende- 
cot,  the  Governor,  and  others  in  New-England,  was 
now  read  ;  as  also  Mr.  Governor  acquainted  those 
present  with  certain  testimonies  sent  over  against  one 
William  Rovell,  master  of  a  ship  of  [blank],  concern- 
ing some  insolent  and  misbeseeming  speeches  uttered 
by  him  in  contempt  of  the  Company's  privileges  and 
government  ;  which  is  to  be  taken  into  further  con- 
sideration, and  be  proceeded  against,  w^hen  other 
certificates  are  come,  which  are  expected,  concern- 
ing that  business. 

This  day  being  one  one  of  the  four  quarter  days 
appointed   by   the    Charter   for  keeping  a  General 

'  This  letter  is  not  preserved. 


110  MORE  MONEY  TO  BE  RAISED. 

Court,  the  general  business  of  the  Plantation  should 
have  been  treated  on.  But  by  reason  of  the  small 
appearance,  and  shortness  of  time,  nothing  was  done 
therein.  Only  the  Governor  made  relation  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  joint  committee  concerning  the 
settling  of  the  joint  stock ;  that  notwithstanding 
there  had  been  all  good  concordancy  and  fair  pro- 
ceedings between  them,  yet  by  reason  of  the  great- 
ness of  the  business  and  the  smallness  of  the  supplies, 
they  could  not  bring  the  same  to  a  wished  effect,  but 
only  had  reduced  it  to  certain  propositions,  to  be 
represented  to  the  consideration  of  the  Company  to 
receive  their  resolution  therein. 

The  accomptant  having  made  an  estimate  of  the 
accounts,  the  joint  stock  appears  to  be  in  arrear 
<£3000,  and  upwards.  Towards  which  ,£3000  there 
is  [<£]1900  in  subscriptions  not  yet  brought  in,  and 
about  8  or  j£900  upon  freight  of  ships. 

There  will  be  a  necessity  for  supply  of  necessaries 
for  the  Company's  servants,  .  .         .£2000^ 

For  merchandises  for  trade,  .  .  500 

For  munition  and  artillery  for  fortification,    500 
So  as  there  being  an  inevitable  necessity  of  [a] 
supply  of  money,  either  to  revive  the  old  stock  or  to 
raise  a  new,  the  propositions  were  now  expressed,  viz. 

1.  That  all  the  former  adventurers  should  double 
their  former  subscriptions. 

2.  That  the  servants,  cattle,  and  all  merchandises 
or  provisions  belonging  to  the  joint  stock,  should  be 
sold,  and  the  underwriters  be  paid  their  propor- 
tions of  what  shall  accrue  or  arise  thereof. 

'  Felt,  Annals  of  Salem,  i.  141,  ens  in  making  this  jClOOO. 


UNDERTAKERS    PROPOSED.  Ill 

3.  Or  lastly,  that  the  old  stock  be  put  over  to  cer-  chap. 

tain   undertakers,  upon    such  conditions  as   can  be  — 

agreed  on,  and  they  to  go  on  with  the  work  and  ^^^^' 
manage  the  business,  to  bear  all  charges,  and  to  25. 
stand  to  profit  and  loss,  and  to  pay  the  underwriters 
their  principal  by  them  brought,  at  the  end  of  seven 
years  ;  and  this  to  be  understood  not  to  exclude  any 
who  have  affection  to  this  business,  but  that  they  may 
come  in  under  those  undertakers  for  such  sums  as 
they  shall  think  fit  to  adventure  ;  but  that  for  the 
better  furtherance  and  facilitating  the  business,  the 
same  to  be  managed  by  few  hands.  And  for  the  en- 
couragement of  such  undertakers,  the  committee 
have  thought  of  certain  inducements,  viz. 

That  they  shall  have 

The  one  half  of  the  beaver  ; 

The  sole  making  of  salt  ; 

The  sole  transportation  of  passengers,  —  servants 
and  goods  to  be  transported  at  reasonable  rates ; 

To  be  allowed  a  reasonable  profit  upon  all  such 
provisions  as  they  shall  keep  in  magazine  there  for 
the  use  and  relief  of  the  inhabitants. 

All  which  premises  the  Governor  recommended 
to  the  consideration  of  those  present.  But  by  reason 
of  the  small  appearance,  nothing  could  be  determin- 
ed ;  and  therefore  a  special  Court  is  appointed  for 
this  purpose  on  Monday  next,  and  the  whole  Com- 
pany to  be  summoned  by  tickets  to  be  present. 

Lastly,  upon  the  motion  of  Mr.  Whyte,  to  the  end 
that  this  business  might  be  proceeded  in  with  the 
first  intention,  which  was  chiefly  the  glory  of  God, 
and  to  that  purpose  that  theh*  meetings  might  be 


112 


CHAPLAINS  OF  THE  GENERAL  COURT. 


CHAP,  sanctified  by  the  prayers^  of  some  faithful  ministers 
resident  here   in  London,  whose  advice  would  be 


1629. 

Nov. 
25. 


m 

likewise  requisite  upon  many  occasions,  the  Court 
thought  fit  to  admit  into  the  freedom  of  this  Com- 
pany" Mr.  John  Archer^  and  Mr.  Philip  Nye,"^  min- 
isters here  in  London,  who  being  here  present  kindly 
accepted  thereof.  Also  Mr.  Whyte  did  recommend 
unto  them  Mr.  Nathaniel  Ward,^  of  Standon. 


*  This  shows  the  antiquity  of  the 
practice,  still  observed  in  Massaclm- 
setts,  of  opening  the  meetings  of  the 
Legislature,  or  General  Court,  with 
prayer. 

^  This  admission  of  freemen  was 
authorized  by  the  Charter  of  the 
Company,  and  was  a  practice  long 
observed  in  the  Colony.  The  Char- 
ter provides,  that  "  the  Governor 
and  Company  shall  have  full  power 
and  authority  to  choose,  nominate 
and  appoint  such  and  so  many  as 
they  shall  think  fit,  and  that  shall  be 
willing  to  accept  the  same,  to  be 
free  of  the  said  Company  and  Body, 
and  them  into  the  same  to  admit." 

'  I  can  find  no  account  of  John 
Archer  in  Newcourt's  Repertorium 
Ecclesiasticum,  nor  in  any  of  the 
ecclesiastical  registers.  I  doubt 
therefore  whether  he  was  a  minister 
of  London.  There  may  be  an  error 
perhaps  in  the  Christian  name. 

^  Pliilip  Nye  was  born  in  1596, 
and  was  educated  at  Magdalen  Hall, 
Oxford,  where  he  took  the  degree 
of  A.  M.  in  1622.  In  1630,  accord- 
ing to  Anthony  Wood,  be  was  cu- 
rate of  St.  Michael's  church  in  Corn- 
hill,  London.  In  1G33  he  fled  from 
Laud's  persecutions  into  Holland, 
and  became  minister  of  a  churcli  at 
Arnheim,  where  he  remained  till  the 
end  of  1640,  at  the  opening  of  the 
Long  Parliament,  when  he  returned 
to  England.  In  1643  he  was  ap- 
])ointed  one  of  the  Assembly  of  Di- 
vines, and  the  same  year  was  sent 
by  the  Parliament  into  Scotland, 
with  Sir  Henry  Yane,  jr.  and  Ste- 
phen Marshall,  whose  daughter  he 


had  married,  as  commissioners  to 
ask  for  assistance  and  expedite  the 
Covenant.  He  was  one  of  the  chap- 
lains who  attended  the  commis- 
sioners to  Charles  I.  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight  in  December,  1647,  and  was 
made  one  of  the  Triers  of  preachers 
in  1653.  He  was  the  principal  per- 
son in  managing  the  meeting  of  the 
Congregational  Churches  at  the  Sa- 
voy, by  the  Protector's  order,  held 
Oct.  12,  1658.  At  the  Restoration 
in  1660,  it  was  debated  in  Parlia- 
ment whether  he  should  be  except- 
ed from  the  bill  of  indemnity,  and 
his  life  was  spared  solely  on  condi- 
tion that  he  should  never  hold  any 
office,  civil,  ecclesiastical,  or  milita- 
ry. He  died  in  1672,  aged  76.  See 
Wood's  Athen.  Oxon.  iii.  963,  Fasti, 
i.  386,  406  ;  Clarendon's  Rebellion, 
iv.  153. 

^  Nathaniel  Ward,  the  eccentric 
and  facetious  author  of  "  The  Sim- 
ple Cobbler  of  Agawam  in  Ameri- 
ca," was  the  son  of  John  W^ard,  a 
celebrated  Puritan  divine,  and  was 
born  at  Haverhill,  in  Suffolk,  of 
which  town  his  father  was  minister, 
about  the  year  1570.  He  was  en- 
tered at  Emanuel  College,  Cam- 
bridge, in  1596,  and  took  the  degree 
of  A.  M.  in  1603.  He  was  origin- 
ally intended  for  the  law  ;  but  trav- 
elling on  the  continent,  he  fell  in  at 
Heidelberg  with  the  learned  David 
Parajus,  by  whom  his  mind  was 
turned  to  theology.  On  his  return 
to  England,  he  became  preacher  at 
St.  James's,  Duke's  Place,  London, 
in  1626,  and  afterwards  was  rector 
of  Standon  Massye,  in    Essex,  16 


LIABILITIES    OF    THE    JOINT    STOCK. 


113 


A  General  Court  at  Mr.  Goff's  house,  on  Monday,  the 
last  of  November,  IQ^^.     Present, 

Mr.  John  Winthrop,  Governor, 

]\Ir.  John  Humfry,  Deputy, 

Mr.  George  Harwood,  Treasurer, 


Sir  Richard  Saltonstall, 
Mr.  Isaac  Johnson, 
Mr.  Thomas  Goff, 
Mr.  Thomas  Dudley, 
Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright, 
Mr,  Matthew  Cradock, 


Mr.  Thomas  Adams, 
Mr.  Theophilus  Eaton, 
Mr.  L\crease  Noell, 
Mr.  John  Revell, 
Mr.  William  Pinchon, 
Assistants. 


With  many  of  the  Generalitrj.  —  2o. 

It  was  propounded  to  the  Court  that  whereas  the 
joint  stock  w^as  engaged  to  the  value  of  £2500,  pre- 
sent debt,  and  there  was  necessarily  required  £1500 


miles  from  London,  where  he  felt 
the  iron  hand  of  the  intolerant  Laud. 
There  is  extant  a  letter  of  his,  writ- 
ten to  John  Cotton,  Dec.  13,  1631, 
in  which  he  says,  "I  was  yesterday 
convented  before  the  bishop,  I  mean 
to  his  court,  and  am  adjourned  to 
the  next  term.  I  expect  measure 
hard  enough,  and  must  furnish  apace 
with  proportionable  armor."  Hav- 
ing been  excommunicated  and  de- 
prived of  his  clerical  office  for  non- 
conformity, he  came  over  to  INIas- 
sachusetts  in  1634,  and  was  soon 
chosen  pastor  of  the  church  in  Ips- 
wich, from  which  office  he  was  dis- 
charged at  his  own  request  in  1636. 
In  1641  he  was  chosen  by  the  free- 
men of  the  Colony,  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  Governor  and  magistrates, 
to  preach  the  Election  Sermon.  At 
the  request  of  the  General  Court  he 
composed  "  The  Body  of  Liberties," 
which  in  Dec.  1641,  was  adopted  by 
them,  and  was  the  first  Code  of  Laws 
established  in  New-England.  Win- 
throp,  in  recording  this  transaction, 
says  that  "Ward  "  had  been  formerly 
a  student  and  practiser  in  the  course 
of  the  common  law  ;"'  and  the  leajn- 


ed  editor  of  the  Code  remarks  that 
"  The  Body  of  Liberties  exhibits 
throughout  the  hand  of  the  practised 
lawyer,  familiar  with  the  principles 
and  the  securities  of  English  liberty." 
In  1647  he  returned  to  England,  and 
became  minister  of  Shenfield,  in 
Essex,  where  he  died,  aged  about 
83.  Fuller  places  him  among  the 
learned  writers  of  Emanuel  College, 
Cambridge,  and  also  mentions  him 
in  his  Woitliies  of  England,  ii.  344. 
"  The  Simple  Cobbler  of  Agawam,"' 
by  which  he  is  now  best  known,  was 
written  in  this  country,  and  printed 
at  London  in  1647,  and  reprinted  at 
Boston  in  1686  and  again  in  1843. 
A  good  account  of  it  and  its  author 
may  be  seen  in  the  Monthly  Anthol- 
ogy, vi.  341.  Mr.  Savage  speaks 
of  it  as  a  "  work  very  attractive  for 
its  humor,  and  curious  for  its  exe- 
crable spirit."  See  Col.  Records, 
i.  217,  317,  MS.  ;  Mather's  Magna- 
lia,  i.  470 ;  Hutchinson's  Mass.  i. 
1-20  ;  Winthrop's  N.  E.  i.  154,  322, 
ii.  35,  55  :  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xiv.  2, 
xxviii.  190-237,  248,  9  ;  Newcourt's 
Repertorium,  i.  917,  ii.  545» 


114  PRIVILEGES    OF    THE    JOINT    STOCK. 


CHAP,  present  disbursement  for  maintenance  of  the  servants 
v^—  now  in  the  Plantation,  and  for  commodities  for  truck 
1629.  j^j^j  munition,  that  the  adventurers  would  be  pleased 
^7'   to  double  their  former  subscriptions.     Which  being 
not   assented   unto  by  the  Court,  it  was  propounded 
and   agreed  by  general  consent,   that   ten   persons 
should  be  chosen,  five  of  the  adventurers,  and  five  of 
the  planters,  who  should  take  the  joint  stock  at  the 
true  value,  and  take  upon  them  the  engagements  and 
other  charges  ;  for  which  there  should  be   appropri- 
ated to  the  joint  stock,  for  seven  years,  these  privi- 
leges which  follow,  viz. 

1.  Half  the  trade  of  the  beavers,  and  all  other  furs, 

2.  The  sole  making  of  salt, 

3.  The  furnishing  of  a  magazine  at  set  rates, 

4.  The  sole  transportation  of  passengers  and  goods 

at  certain  rates. 
For  which  end  there  was  a  committee  appointed 
to  value  the  joint  stock,  viz.  Mr.  White,^  of  Dorches- 
ter, Mr.  Thomas  Goff,  Mr.  Webb,  Mr.  Increase  No- 
ell  ;  who  taking  upon  them  the  charge  of  the  said 
^^^-  business,  did  the  next  day  (the  Court  then  sitting 
upon  adjournment,)  make  certificate  of  their  pro- 
ceedings to  this  effect,  viz. 

That  whereas  divers  sums  had  been  disbursed  in 
public  charges,  as  transporting  of  ministers  and  their 
families,  ammunition,  &.C.,  which  were  not  now  to 
be  valued  to  the  undertakers,   as  being   to  remain 


^  Here  we  take  leave  of  the  ven-  at  a  distance  of  120  miles  from  Lon- 

erable   jiatriarch  of  Uorchcsler,  and  don,   it  has  been    seen  tliat  he  fre- 

have  only  to    regret    that  he   never  queiitly  came  up  to  attend  the  Courts 

came    over  to   see   the  Colony,   in  of  the  Company.    See  an  account  of 

uhose  welfare  he  took  so  early  and  him  on  page  !*i6. 
deep  an  interest.    Although  he  lived 


PRIVILEGES    OF    THE    OLD    ADVENTURERS.  115 

always  to  the  Plantation  ;  and  whereas  many  of  the  chap. 
servants,  which  were  transported  at  extraordinary  > — -^ 
charge,  do  not  prove  so  useful  as  was  expected,  and  ^^^Q. 
so  will  not  yield  the  undertakers  any  such  benefit  as  i^ ' 
may  answer  their  charge  ;  divers  of  the  cattle  and 
provisions  likewise  miscarrying,  through  want  of  ex- 
perience in  the  beginning  of  such  a  work,  they  could 
not  find  the  said  stock  to  remain  clear  and  good  (the 
debts  discharged)  above  one  third  part  of  the  whole 
sum  which  hath  been  adventured  from  the  first  to 
this  present  day ;  which  value,  upon  due  examina- 
tion and  long  debate,  was  allowed  by  all  the  Court. 
Whereupon  it  was  propounded  and  agreed  by  the 
whole  Court,  that  the  old  adventurers,  (in  lieu  of  this 
abatement  of  two-thirds  of  their  adventures,)  should 
have  an  addition  of  a  double  proportion  of  land,  ac- 
cording to  the  first  proportion  of  two  hundred  acres 
for  <£50  ;  and  that  they  should  have  liberty  to  put  in 
what  sums  they  pleased  to  be  added  to  their  former 
adventures,  so  as  they  subscribed  the  same  before 
the  first  day  of  January  now  next  following  ;  and 
such  as  live  in  the  country,  remote  from  the  city  of 
London,  to  enter  their  subscriptions  before  the  se- 
cond of  February  next  ;  and  that  any  of  the  said 
adventurers  may  take  out  their  adventures  after  the 
aforesaid  rate  ;  and  further,  that  it  should  be  lawful 
for  all  other  persons  (with  consent  of  any  three  of 
the  undertakers)  to  put  in  what  sums  of  money  they 
please,  to  be  traded  in  the  joint  stock,  (upon  such 
allowance  to  the  common  stock  for  public  uses,  in 
regard  that  they  shall  bear  no  part  in  the  ibrmer 
losses,)  as  the  said  adventurers,  or  three  of  them, 
shall  agree  with  them  for,  from   time  to  time  ;  and 


116  TEN    UNDERTAKERS    CHOSEN. 

CHAP,  that  all  adventurers  shall  pay  in  their  adventures  in 
in.  ^  *' 

such  time   and  manner  as   shall  be  agreed  between 

them  and  the  said  undertakers,  or  any  three  of  them. 

It  was  also  agreed  by  the  Court,  that  in  regard 
the  undertakers  should  bear  the  greatest  charge  and 
burthen,  and  all  other  adventurers  should  have  equal 
part  of  the  gain,  if  any  did  proceed,  that  therefore 
they  should  have  £o  in  the  hundred  clear  gains  of 
the  said  joint  stock,  both  in  and  out,  all  charges  be- 
ing deducted. 

And  that  the  joint  stock  being  thus  managed,  at 
the  end  of  seven  years,  (to  be  accounted  from  this 
day,)  as  well  the  said  stock,  as  the  proceed  and  pro- 
fit thereof,  to  be  divided  to  every  man  proportionably, 
according  to  his  adventure  ;  and  all  the  said  privi- 
leges then  to  cease,  and  all  persons  to  be  at  liberty 
to  dispose  of  their  parts  in  the  joint  stock  at  their 
own  pleasures.^ 

Hereupon  the  Court  thought  fit  to  desire  the  gen- 
tlemen hereunder  named  to  undertake  the  joint  stock 
upon  the  terms  before  propounded,  viz. 

Mr.  John  Winthrop,  the  Gov.  Mr.  Matthew  Cradock, 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Knt.  Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright, 

Isaac  Johnson,  Esq.  Mr.  Theophilus  Eaton, 

Mr.  Thomas  Dudley,  Mr.  Thomas  Goff, 

Mr.  John  Revell,  Mr.  James  Young. 

Which  gentlemen,  upon  much  entreaty  of  the 
Court,  did  accept  of  the  said  charge,  and  accordingly 
were  chosen  to  be  undertakers,   to  have  the   sole 


*  "  We  have  no  account  of  any     any  trade  ever  carried  on  for  the 
dividend  ever  made,   nor  indeed  of    (.'unipany."     Hutchinson,  i.  13. 


TRANSPORTATION  OF  PASSENGERS.  117 

managing  of  the  joint  stock,  with  all  things  incident  chap. 

thereunto,  for  the  space  of  seven  years  ;   as  is  afore 

said.  ''''■ 

And  it  was  agreed  to  desire  and  nominate  Mr.  Al-  i. " 
dersey  to  be  Treasurer  for  the  said  Company  ;  and 
that  all  moneys  which  shall  come  in  to  the  joint  stock, 
or  that  shall  be  given  to  the  common  stock,  shall  be 
paid  unto  him,  and  to  be  issued  out  upon  warrant 
under  the  hands  of  the  said  undertakers,  or  any  three 
of  them,  as  occasion  shall  require. 

It  was  also  ordered  by  the  Court,  that  the  under- 
takers should  provide  a  sufficient  number  of  ships,  of 
good  force,  for  transporting  of  passengers,  at  the  rate 
of  jG5  a  person,  and  £4  a  ton  for  goods;  which  shall 
be  ready  to  set  sail  from  London  by  the  first  day  of 
March  ;  and  that  if  any  passengers  be  to  take  ship 
at  the  Isle  of  Wight,  the  ships  shall  stop  there  twen- 
ty-four hours  ;  and  that  all  such  as  intend  to  pass 
over  shall  give  in  their  names,  with  40^.  towards 
their  freight,  to  one  of  the  said  undertakers  abiding 
in  London,  in  the  Michaelmas  term  before,  and  shall 
deliver  their  goods  on  shipboard  before  the  20th  of 
February  following  ;  and  shall  give  security  for  the 
rest  of  their  freight,  as  they  can  agree  with  the  said 
undertakers,  either  for  money  to  be  paid  here,  or  for 
commodity  to  be  delivered  in  the  Plantation. 

Further  it  was  agreed,  that  for  the  transportation 
of  children,  this  rate  shall  be  kept,  viz.  sucking  child- 
ren not  to  be  reckoned  ;  such  as  under  four  years 
of  age,  three  for  one  ;  under  eight,  two  for  one  ; 
under  twelve,  three  for  two.  And  that  a  ship  of 
200  tons  shall  not  carry  above  120  passengers  com- 
plete ;   and  so  of  other  ships,  after  the  same  propor- 


1629. 
Dec. 


118  THE    TRADE    OF    THE    PLANTATION. 

CHAP.  tion.     And  for   sroocls  homewards,  the  frei2:ht  shall 
HI.  ^  . 

> — —  be,  for  beavers  £3  per  ton,  and  for  other  commodi- 
ties 405.  per  ton  ;  and  such  as  will  have  their  goods 
assured,  shall  pay  £5  per  c. 

Concerning  the  magazine,  it  is  likewise  agreed, 
that  the  undertakers  should  furnish  the  Plantation 
with  all  such  commodities  as  they  shall  send  for  ; 
and  the  planters  to  take  them  off  and  retail  them  at 
their  pleasure,  allowing  the  undertakers  .£25  in  the 
hundred  above  all  charges,  and  the  planters  to  have 
liberty  to  dispose  of  their  part  of  the  beavers  at  their 
own  will  ;  and  every  man  may  fetch  or  send  for  any 
commodity  for  his  own  use,  where  or  how  he  please, 
so  as  he  trade  not  w^ith  interlopers,  so  long  as  he 
may  be  furnished  sufficiently  by  the  adventurers  at 
the  rates  aforesaid. 

Lastly,  it  is  ordered,  that  in  regard  this  Court 
could  not  set  down  particular  direction  for  every- 
thing which  may  be  fit  to  be  considered  and  provid- 
ed for  in  all  or  any  of  the  matters  aforesaid,  therefore 
the  said  undertakers  should  have  power  to  meet  and 
consult  about  the  premises  ;  and  what  orders  and 
directions  they,  or  the  greater  number  of  them,  shall 
set  down,  shall  be  accounted  legal,  and  to  be  duly 
observed,  until  it  shall  be  thought  fit  by  this  Court 
to  alter  or  determine  the  same. 

Provided  always,  that  if  those  that  intend  to  in- 
habit upon  the  Plantation  shall,  before  the  first  of 
January  next,  take  upon  them  all  the  said  engage- 
ments and  other  charges  of  the  joint  stock,  then  the 
power  and  privileges  of  the  undertakers  to  deter- 
mine, and  all  the  trade,  &c.  to  be  free. 


DEBATE    ABOUT    THE    JOINT    STOCK.  119 


A  General  Court,   holden  at  Mr.  Goff's  house,  on  the  ^hjp- 
loth  of  December,  1629.     Present,  

1629. 
Mr.  John  Hctmfry,  Deputy,  -p. 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  William  Pinchion,  15. 

Mr.  Matthew  Cradock,  Mr.  Increase  Noell, 

Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright,  Capt.  Venn, 

Mr.  John  Revell,  Mr.  Thomas  Adams, 

Mr.  George  Harwood,  Assistants. 

With  divers  of  the  Generality. 

Mr.  Deputy  caused  to  be  read  the  Acts  and  Or- 
ders made  at  the  last  General  Court  of  the  30th  of 
November  ;  which  being  of  great  consequence,  as 
namely  for  settling  the  joint  stock,  and  managing  of 
the  whole  business,  it  was  desired  the  same  should 
receive  confirmation  by  this  Court.  Upon  debate  . 
whereof,  some  exceptions  were  taken  by  those  who 
had  doubled  their  adventures,  conceiving  themselves 
to  be  wronged  in  having  both  their  sums  drawn  down 
to  so  low  a  rate  as  one  third  part  ;  alleging  that  the 
second  sum  was  paid  in  upon  a  proposition  of  trade, 
which  W'Cnt  not  forward,  and  not  as  unto  the  joint 
stock  for  the  Plantation. 

This  business  received  a  large  discussion,  and 
Capt.  Waller  and  Mr.  Vassall  were  content  to  give 
the  first  <£50  to  the  Plantation,  so  as  their  other  £bO 
might  go  on  wholly  in  this  new  stock.  But  foras- 
much as  this  concerned  divers  others  w^ho  were  in 
the  same  case,  and  that  it  could  not  be  done  without 
alteration  of  the  Act  made  the  30th  of  November, 
which  was  done  by  a  General  Court,  upon  mature 
and  deliberate  consideration,  and  that  the  undertak- 
ers  w^ould  not  continue   their  said  undertaking  but 


120  THE    MINISTERS    APPOINTED    REFEREES. 

CHAP,  upon  the  same  conditions,  which   were  then  pro- 
pounded and  concluded  on. 

This  Court,  in  conclusion,  put  it  to  the  question, 
and  by  erection  of  hands  every  particular  of  the 
former  Court  was  ratified  and  confirmed.  And  the 
matter  in  difference  with  them  who  had  doubled 
their  adventures  being  no  more  to  each  of  them  than 
between  £50  and  £33  6s.  8d.,  was  by  mutual  consent 
referred  to  the  three  ministers  here  present,  Mr. 
Davenport,  Mr.  Nye,  and  Mr.  Archer,  who  are  to 
reconcile  the  same  between  the  new  undertakers 
and  them. 


1630.  A  General  Court,  holden  at  Mr.  Goff's  house,  on  Wed- 
Feh.  nesday,  the  10th  of  February,  1629.     Present, 

Mr.  John  Winthrop,  Governor, 

Mr.  John  IIumfry,  Dejnity, 
Mr.  Isaac  Johnson,  Mr.  Increase  Noell, 

Mr.  Matthew  Ckadock,  Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright, 

Mr.  Tiieophilus  Eaton,  Mr.  John  Revell, 

Mr.  Thomas  Adams,  Mr.  William  Pinchon, 

Mr.  George  Harwood, 

With  many  others  of  the  GencraUly. 

Forasmuch  as  the  furtherance  of  the  Plantation 
will  necessarily  require  a  great  and  continual  charge, 
which  cannot  with  convenience  be  defrayed  out  of 
the  joint  stock  of  the  Company,  which  is  ordained 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  trade,  without  endanger- 
ing the  same  to  be  wasted  and  exhausted,  it  was 
therefore  propounded  that  a  common  stock  should  be 
raised  from  such  as  bear  good  affection  to  the  Planta- 
tion and  the  propagation  thereof,  and  the  same  to  be 
employed  only  in  defrayment  of  public  charges,  as 


A   COMMON    STOCK    TO    BE    RAISED.  121 

maintenance  of  ministers,  transportation  of  poor  fam-  chap. 
ilies,  building  of  churches^  and  fortifications,  and  all  — - 
other  public  and  necessary  occasions  of  the  Planta-  i^^^- 

-  .  Feb. 

tion.  And  the  Com*t  do  think  fit  and  order  that  two  lo. 
hundred  acres  of  land  shall  be  allotted  for  every  <£50, 
and  so  proportionably  for  what  sums  shall  be  brought 
in  by  any  to  this  purpose.  And  Mr.  George  Har- 
wood  is  chosen  Treasurer  for  this  account  of  the 
common  stock,  which  he  accepted  of;  who  is  to  re- 
ceive all  such  money  as  shall  be  by  any  sent  in,  and 
to  issue  out  the  same  upon  warrant  under  the  hands 
of  any  tv/o  or  more  of  the  undertakers.  And  it  is 
further  agreed  on  and  ordered,  that  an  Order  be 
drawn  up  and  published  under  the  seal  of  the  Com- 
pany, to  signify  and  declare  to  what  uses  all  such 
moneys  as  are  given  to  the  common  stock  shall  be 
employed,  and  what  land  shall  be  allotted  to  each 
man  that  gives  thereunto,  as  w^ell  for  their  satisfac- 
tion as  the  encouragement  of  others  to  so  laudable 
and  charitable  a  work  ;  and  it  was  further  taken  into 
consideration,  and  ordered,  that  this  allotment  or 
division  of  land  shall  not  prejudice  the  right  of  any 
the  adventurers  who  are  to  have  land,  and  have  not 
yet  the  same  allotted  out  unto  them,  nor  unto  those 
whose  land  is  already  set  out  according  to  the 
former  order  and  direction  of  this  Court.  Yet, 
nevertheless,  it  is  further  agreed,  that  if  for  good 
and  weighty  reasons,  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  Plant- 
ation in  general,  there  shall  be  occasion  to  alter  any 


'  Thus  houses  of  public  worship  house  was  a  later  iunovation,  which 
are  also  called  churches,  at  the  Court  sprang  up  in  this  country,  and 
held  Oct.  15th  of  the  preceding  year-  ought  to  have  been  long  ago  sup- 
See  page  96.     The  word  meeting-  pressed. 


122  SIR    WILLIAM    BRERETON's    APPLICATION. 

CHAP,  particular  man's  allotment,  the   said  party  is  to  have 

such  due  recompense  for  the  same  as,  in  the  wisdom 

1630.  of  the  Governor  and  Company,  there  resident,  shall 
^Q^-    be  thought  reasonable  and  expedient. 

Motion  was  made  on  the  behalf  of  Sir  William 
Brewerton,^  who,  by  virtue  of  a  late  patent  pretends 
right  and  title  to  some  part  of  the  land  within  the 
Company's  privileges  and  Plantation,  in  New-Eng- 
land ;  yet  nevertheless  he  is  content  (intends)^  not 
to  contest  wdth  the  Company,  but  desires  that  a  pro- 
portionable quantity  of  land  might  be  allotted  unto 
him  for  the  accommodation  of  his  people  and  ser- 
vants now  to  be  sent  over.  Which  request  the 
Court  taking  into  due  consideration,  do  not  think  fit 
to  enter  into  any  particular  capitulation  with  him 
therein,  nor  to  set  out  any  allotment  of  land  for  him 
more  than  the  six  hundred  acres  he  is  to  have  by 
virtue  of  his  adventure  in  the  joint  stock,  nor  to  ac- 
knowledge anything  due  unto  him  as  of  right,  by 
virtue  of  his  said  patent,  nor  to  give  any  considera- 
tion in  case  he  should  relinquish  his  pretended  right; 
but  they  are  well  content  he  should  join  with  them 
in  the  prosecution  of  this  business,  according  to  their 
Charter,  and  do  promise  in  the  mean  time,  that  such 
servants  as  he  shall  send  over  to  inhabit  upon  the 
Plantation,  shall  receive  all  courteous  respect,  and 
be  accommodated  with  land,  and  what  else  shall  be 
necessary,  as  other  the  servants  of  the  Company. 
Which  answer  was  delivered  unto  those  that  were 
sent  from  him  ;  and  the  Court  desired  also  that  Capt. 

'  See  note  ^  on  page  51. 

'^  In  the  original  MS.  thus—  •  '    ^ 

°  IS  content. 


GRIEVANCES    OF    THE    BROWXES. 


123 


Waller  and  Mr.  Eaton  ^  would  signify  the  Company's 
affection  and  due  respect  unto  him,  he  having  written 
to  them  about  this  business. 

A  writing  of  grievances  of  Mr.  Samuel  and  John 
Browne  was  presented  to  this  Court,  wherein  they 
desire  recompense  for  loss  and  damage  sustained  by 
them  in  New-England  ;  which  this  assembly  taking 
into  consideration,  do  think  fit  that  upon  their  sub- 
mitting to  stand  to  the  Company's  final  order  for 
ending  of  all  differences  between  them,  (which  they 
are  to  signify  under  their  hands,)  Mr.  Wright  and 
Mr.  Eaton  are  to  hear  their  complaint,  and  to  set 
down  what  they  in  their  judgments  shall  think  requi- 
site to  be  allow^ed  them  for  their  pretended  damage 
sustained,  and  so  to  make  a  final  end  with  them  ac- 
cordingly. 

Mr.  Roger  Ludlowe^  was  now^  chosen  and  sworn 


'  Theophilus  Eaton,  the  father  of 
the  Colony  of  New-Haven,  was 
horn  about  tl'.e  year  1590,  at  Stony 
Stratford,  in  Oxfordshire,  of  which 
place  his  father  was  the  minister. 
He  was  educated  at  Coventry', 
whither  his  father  had  removed, 
and  at  school  formed  an  intimate 
acquaintance  and  friendship  with 
John  Davenport,  son  of  the  mayor 
of  the  city,  whose  parishioner  he 
afterwards  became  in  London,  and  at 
whose  instigation  he  came  to  New- 
England.  Eaton  was  a  wealthy 
London  merchant,  largely  engaged 
in  business,  and  deputy-governor  of 
the  company  of  merchant  adventur- 
ers that  carried  on  the  Baltic  trade. 
So  great  was  his  judgment  and  ex- 
perience, gained  by  travel  and  prac- 
tice in  affairs,  that  he  was  sent  by 
Charles  L  as  his  agent  to  the  court 
of  Denmark.  In  company  whh  Da- 
venport he  arrived  at  Boston,  June 
26,  1637,  and  on  the  30th  of  INIarch, 
1638,  they  sailed  with  their  associ- 


ates for  the  place  which  they  after- 
wards called  New-Haven.  On  the 
25th  of  October,  1639,  he  was  cho- 
sen governor  of  the  infant  Colony, 
to  which  office  he  was  annually  re- 
elected till  his  death,  Jan.  7,  1658,  a 
period  of  more  than  eighteen  years. 
See  Hubbard's  Hist.  N.  E.  317,  329  ; 
Mather's  Magnalia,  i.  136  ;  Win- 
throp's  Hist.  i.  228,  237,  259,  405 ; 
Trumbull's  Connecticut,  i.  95-100, 
231  ;  Kingsley's  Cent.  Discourse  at 
New -Haven,  pp.  11,75;  and  Ba- 
con's Hist,  Discourses,  pp.  109,  354. 
^  Roger  Ludlow  was  the  brother- 
in-law  of  Endicott,  and  came  over 
with  the  west-country  people,  Ros- 
siter,  Warham,  Maverick,  Roger 
Clap,  &c.,  in  the  Mary  &  John, 
which  sailed  from  Plymouth  March 
20,  and  arrived  at  Nantasket  May  30, 
thirteen  days  before  Winthrop's  ar- 
rival at  Salem.  He  was  one  of  the 
first  settlers  of  Dorchester,  and  was 
re-elected  Assistant  until  1634,  when 
he   was  chosen  Deputy  Governor. 


124 


THE    LAST    COURT    IN    LONDON. 


CHAP,  an  Assistant  in  the  room  of  Mr.  Samuel  Sharpe,  who 
by  reason  of  his  absence  had  not  taken  the  oath. 

And  histly,  upon  the  petition  of  Humphry  Scale, 
the  beadle  of  this  Company,  the  Court  were  content 
and  agreed  to  give  him  twenty  nobles  for  his  year's 
salary  ending  at  Christmas  last  ;  which  is  to  be  paid 
by  Mr.  Aldersey,  the  Treasurer,  out  of  the  joint 
stock. ^ 


In  the  Colony  Records,  under  date 
Nov.  7,  1032,  it  is  stated,  "There 
is  one  hundred  acres  of  land  granted 
to  Mr.  Rojjer  Ludlowe,  to  enjoy  to 
him  and  his  heirs  forever,  lying  he- 
tvi^ixt  Musqnantum  Chapel  and  tlie 
mouth  of  Na})onsett."  lie  removed 
with  the  first  emigrants  to  Windsor, 
in  Connecticnt,  of  which  town  he 
may  be  considered  the  founder ;  in 
1G36  was  chosen  an  Assistant  of 
that  Colony,  and  in  1039  Deputy 
Governor,  to  whicli  office  he  was 
several  times  re-elected.  In  1037 
he  was  out  in  the  Pequot  war,  with 
Stoughton  and  Mason,  in  pursuit  of 
Sassacus.  In  1039  he  removed  to 
Fairfield,  and  in  1054  went  to  A^ir- 
ginia,  where  it  is  supposed  he  died. 
Trumbull  says,  "  He  appears  to 
have  been  distinguished  for  his  abil- 
ities, especially  his  knowledge  of  the 
law,  and  the  rights  of  mankind.  He 
rendered  most  essential  services  to 
this  Commonwealth ;  was  a  princi- 
pal in  forming  its  original  civil  con- 


stitution, and  the  compiler  of  the 
first  Connecticut  Code,  adopted  in 
1049,  and  printed  at  Cambridge  in 
1072.  For  jurisprudence,  he  ap- 
pears to  have  been  second  to  none 
who  came  into  New-England  at  that 
time.  Had  he  possessed  a  happier 
temper,  he  would  probably  have 
been  the  idol  of  the  people,  and 
shared  in  all  the  honors  which  they 
could  have  given  him."  See  Mass. 
Col.  Rec.  1^  95,  MS.  ;  Trumbull's 
Connecticut,  i.  04,  103,  109,  177 
218  ;  Hubbard's  N.  E.,  p.  105 
Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  35,  43,  98 
Winthrop's  N.  E.,  i.  28,  132,  233, 
235. 

'  Here  Secretary  Burgess's  re- 
cord ends.  He  stayed  behind,  and 
never  came  over.  The  remainder 
of  the  Records  is  in  the  handwriting 
of  Simon  Bradstreet,  who  was  the 
first  Secretary  after  their  arrival  in 
New-England.  See  Ed.  Johnson, 
in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  ii.  87,  and  Col. 
Rec.  MS.  i.  55. 


WINTHROP'S    COMPANY    AT    SOUTHAMPTON. 


125 


At  a  Meeting  of  Assistants  at  Southampton,^   March  ^^jj^- 
18/A,  1629.     Present,  ™ 


1630, 


Mr.  Governor, 

Mr.  Humfrev, 

March 

Sir  Richard  Saltonstall, 

Mr.  Novvell, 

18. 

Mr.  Johnson, 

Mr.  Pinchion, 

Mr.  Dudley, 

Mr.  Goffe. 

It  was  ordered,  and  concluded,  by  erection  of 
hands,  that  Sir  Brian  Janson,  Kt.,^  Mr.  William 
Coddington,  and  Mr.  Simon  Bradstreet,^  gentlemen, 


^  Southampton  is  situated  at  the 
head  of  an  estuary  runnintj  up  from 
the  Isle  of  Wight,  called  the  South- 
ampton Water.  It  was  from  this 
same  port  that  the  Pilgrims  sailed  in 
the  Mayflower  and  Speedwell,  in 
July,  1620.  See  Chronicles  of  the 
Pilgrims,  p.  89. 

*  Governor  W^inthrop,  writing  to 
his  son  John  ' '  from  aboard  the  Ar- 
bella,  riding  at  the  Cowes,  March 
22,  1630,"  says,  "  There  is  newly 
come  into  our  Company,  and  sworn 
an  Assistant,  one  Sir  Brian  Janson, 
of  London,  a  man  of  good  estate, 
and  so  affected  with  our  society,  as 
he  hath  given  £"50  to  our  common 
stock,  and  £50  to  the  joint  stock." 
W^inthrop's  Hist.  N.  E.,  i.  367. 

^  Simon  Bradstreet  was  the  young- 
est of  the  Assistants  who  came  over 
with  Winthrop,  being  at  this  time 
only  27  years  of  age.  He  was  born 
in  jilarch,  1003,  at  Hor])ling,  in  Lin- 
colnshire, of  which  town  his  father 
was  a  Nonconformist  minister,  and 
was  educated  at  Emanuel  College, 
Cambridge,  of  which  his  father  had 
been  one  of  the  first  fellows,  and 
there  took  the  degree  of  A.  B.  in 
1620  and  of  A.  M.  in  1624.  He 
was  for  some  time  steward  of  the 
Earl  of  Lincoln,  and  afterwards 
served  the  Countess  of  Warwick  in 
the  same  capacity.     Before  leaving 


England,  he  married  Ann,  daughter 
of  Thomas  Dudley,  another  of  the 
Assistants,  she  being  at  this  time 
only  16  years  of  age,  and  after  her 
death  he  married  the  sister  of  Sir 
George  Dow'ning.  He  served  the 
Colony  as  Assistant,  Secretary, 
Agent  in  England  in  1662,  Commis- 
sioner for  the  United  Colonies,  and 
Governor,  in  1679,  when  in  his  76th 
year.  After  the  deposition  of  An- 
dres, in  1G89,  he  was  chosen  Presi- 
dent of  the  Council  of  Safety,  when 
in  his  87th  year,  and  then  again  Go- 
vernor, which  otiice  he  held  till  the 
arrival  of  Sir  W'illiam  Phips  with 
the  new  charter  in  1692.  He  lived 
to  be  the  Nestor  of  New-England, 
having  been  born  at  the  beginning 
of  the  century  in  1603,  and  wanting 
but  three  years  of  completing  it. 
He  died  March  27,  1697,  at  Salem. 
The  Latin  inscription  on  his  monu- 
ment is  printed  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
vi.  288.  "  Oct.  3,  1032,  there  is  sixty 
acres  of  meadow  ground  granted  to 
Simon  Bradstreet  in  the  marsh 
ground  against  the  Oyster  Bank;" 
and  May  14,  1634,  five  hundred  acres 
more  are  granted  to  him.  See  Col. 
Rec.  i.  93,  118,  MS.  ;  Matlier's 
Magnalia,  i.  126  ;  Hutchinson's 
Mass.  i.  18,  219,  323,  382,  ii.  13, 
105 ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  247, 
249. 


126 


WINTimOP  S    FLEET    AT    COWES. 


shall  be  chosen  in  the  rooms  and  places  of  Assistants 
of  Mr.  Nathaniel  Wright,  merchant,  Mr.  Theophilus 
Eaton,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Goffe,  of  London,  merchants. 
Sir  Brian  Janson  was  sworn  an  Assistant  before 
the  Governor  and  Mr.  Dudley  the  same  day.* 


23. 


March  23d,  1629. 

Mr.  William  Coddington,  Mr.  Simon  Bradstreet, 
and  Mr.  Thomas  Sharpe,  being  formerly  chosen  As- 
sistants, did  now  take  the  oath  of  Assistants  before 
the  Governor,  Mr.  Dudley,  and  other  Assistants. 


'  Joslma  Scottow,  in  his  "  Nar- 
rative of  the  Planting  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Colony,  anno  1028,"  printed 
at  Boston  in  1691,  says,  page  13, 
"  Some  of  their  choice  friends,  as 
the  Reverend  Mr.  Cotton  and  otiiers, 
went  along  with  tiiem  from  Boston, 
in  Lincolnshire,  to  Southampton, 
where  they  parted,  and  he  preached 
his  farewell  sermon."  This  infor- 
mation he  may  have  received  from 
the  venerable  Simon  Bradstreet,  to 
whom  he  dedicates  his  book,  and 
who  was  then  living  at  the  advanced 
age  of  91.  We  know  that  Cotton 
did  deliver  a  sermon,  entitled 
"  God's  Promise  to  his  Plantations," 
in  1630,  and  that  it  was  printed  the 
same  year  ;  but  whether  it  was 
preached  at  Boston  to  his  parishion- 
ers who  were  then  coming  over, 
(among  whom  were  Dudley  and 
Coddington,)  or  at  Southampton, 
may  be  a  question.  That  it  was  at 
the  latter  place,  as  stated  by  Scot- 
tow,  is  rendered  probable  by  a  state- 
ment of  Dr.  Samuel  Fuller,  the 
physician  of  New-Plymouth,  who, 
writing  to  Governor  Bradford  from 
Charlestown,  June  28,  1630,  soon 
after  the  arrival  of  Winthrop's  fleet, 
says,  "  Here  is  a  gentleman,  one 
Mr.  Coddington,  a  Boston  man,  who 
tuld  me  that  Mr.  Cotton's  charge  at 


Hampton  was,  that  they  should  take 
advice  of  them  at  Plymouth,  and 
should  do  nothing  to  offand  thein." 
See  pp.  16  and  48,  and  Mass.  Hist. 
Coll.  iii.  75. 

Hubbard  states,  p.  125,  we  know 
not  on  what  authority,  that  "  Mr. 
John  Winthrop,  the  Governor  of 
the  Company,  at  a  solemn  feast 
amongst  many  friends  a  little  before 
their  last  farewell,  finding  his 
bowels  yearn  within  him,  instead 
of  drinking  to  them,  l)y  breaking 
into  a  flood  of  tears  himself,  set 
them  all  a  weeping,  with  Paul's 
friends,  while  they  thought  of  see- 
ing the  faces  of  each  other  no  more 
in  the  land  of  the  living."  Mather, 
in  the  Magnalia,  i.  69,  mentions  the 
same  circumstance,  deriving  it,  doubt- 
less, from  Hubbard's  MS.  See  also 
Ed.  Johnson's  Hist.  N.  E.,  ch.  12. 

"  Here  is  a  fleet  of  fourteen  sail, 
furnished  with  men,  women,  child- 
ren, all  necessaries,  men  of  handi- 
crafts, ai;d  others  of  good  condition, 
wealth  and  quality,  to  make  a  firm 
Plantation  in  New-England,  between 
42  and  48,  north  latitude  ;  but  stay 
at  Southampton  and  thereabouts  till 
May,  to  take  260  kine,  with  other 
live  cattle,  &c."  Howes,  Continu- 
ation of  Stow's  Annals,  quoted  in 
Prince,  p.  270. 


THOMAS  DUDLEY  CHOSEN  DEPUTY. 


127 


At  a  Court  of  Assistants  aboard  the  Arbella,^   March  chap. 
"^  ni. 

23,  1629.     Present, 


Mr.  John  Winthrop,  Governor, 
Sir  Richard  Saltonstall, 
Mr.  Isaac  Johnson, 
Mr.  Thomas  Dudley, 


Mr.  William  Coddington, 
Mr.  Thomas  Sharpe, 
Mr.  William  Vassall, 
Mr.  Simon  Bradstreet. 


Mr.  John  Humfrey,  (in  regard  he  was  to  stay 
behind  in  England,)  was  discharged  of  his  Deputy- 
ship,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Dudley  chosen  Deputy  in  his 
place." 


'  The  Arbella,  formerly  the  Ea- 
gle, a  ship  of  350  or  400  tons,  man- 
ned with  52  seamen  and  28  pieces  of 
cannon,  was  at  this  time  liding  at 
Cowes,  a  well-known  anchoring- 
ground  near  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and 
in  the  vicinity  of  Portsmouth.  Here 
she  remained  till  Monday,  the  29th, 
when  she  proceeded  to  Yarmouth. 
See  note  '  on  page  93,  and  Win- 
throp's  Hist.  i.  1,  367. 

*  This  is  the  last  record  of  the 
INIassachusetts  Company  in  England. 
Winthrop,  with  a  fleet  of  four  ships, 
the  Arbella,  the  Talbot,  the  Am- 
brose, and  the  Jewel,  sailed  from 
Cowcs,  March  29,  and  from  Yar- 
mouth, in  the  Isle  of  Wight,  April  8. 
Passing  through  the  Needles,  on  the 
9tli  they  were  otf  Poiiland,  and  on 
the  10th  over  against  Plymouth,  and 
in  sight  of  the  Lizard.  On  the  11th 
they  passed  Scilly,  and  took  their 
departure.  They  made  land  on  the 
American  coast  June  6,  were  within 
sight  of  Cape  Ann  on  the  1 1th,  cast 
anchor  inside  of  Baker's  island  on 
the  12th,  where  they  remained  over 
Sunday,  and  on  the  14th  warped 
ship  into  the  inner  harbour  of  Salem. 
Winthrop  kept  a  minute  journal  of 
the  voyage,  wiiich  is  printed  at  the 
beginning  of  his  History.  The  fleet 
tliat  brought  over  Winthrop's  com- 
pany consisted  of  fifteen  ships,  and 
the  number  of  persons  was  not  far 
from  1500.   "  What  must  we  think," 


says  Hutchinson,  i.  19,  "of persons 
of  rank  and  good  circumstances  in 
life  bidding  a  final  adieu  to  all  the 
conveniences  and  delights  of  Eng- 
land, their  native  country,  and  ex- 
posing themselves,  their  wives  and 
children,  to  inevitable  hardships  and 
sufferings,  in  a  long  voyage  across 
the  Atlantic,  to  land  upon  a  most 
inhospitable  shore,  destitute  of  any 
kind  of  building  to  secure  them  from 
the  inclemency  of  the  weather,  and 
of  most  sorts  of  food  to  which  they 
had  been  always  used  at  their  former 
home  !  The  sickness  and  mortality 
which  prevailed  the  first  winter,  they 
did  not  foresee."  A  nobler  body  of 
men  never  left  their  native  soil  to 
colonize  a  new  land.  What  does 
Bancroft  mean  (Hist.  U.  S.  ii.  455,) 
by  "  the  Puritan  felons  that  freight- 
ed the  fleet  of  Winthrop  ' '  ?  Let 
him  who  would  understand  the  char- 
acter of  these  men,  read  the  admi- 
rable Address  delivered  by  Gov. 
Everett  at  Charlestown  in  1830,  on 
the  Second  Centennial  Anniversary 
of  the  arrival  of  Gov.  Winthrop. — 
It  was  in  reference  to  the  persecu- 
tion and  exile  of  such  men,  that 
Milton,  writing  in  1641,  said, 
"  What  numbers  of  futhful  and 
freeborn  Englishmen,  and  good 
Christians,  have  been  constrained  to 
forsake  their  dearest  home,  their 
friends  and  kindred,  whom  nothing 
but  the  wide  ocean,  and  tlie  savage 


128 


THE    COMPANY  S    RECORDS. 


deserts  of  America,  could  hide  and 
shelter  from  tiie  fury  of  the  bishojjs. 
0  if  we  could  but  see  the  shape  of 
1G30  °^^  dear  mother  England,  as  poets 
are  wont  to  give  a  personal  form  to 
what  they  please,  how  would  she 
appear,  think  ye,  but  in  a  mourning 
weed,  with  aslies  upon  her  head, 
and  tears  abundantly  flowing  from 
her  eyes,  to  behold  so  many  of  her 
children  exposed  at  once,  and  thrust 
from  things  of  dearest  necessity, 
because  their  conscience  could  not 
assent  to  things  which  the  bishops 
thought  indifferent  1  Let  the  astrolo- 
ger be  dismayed  at  the  portentous 
blaze  of  comets  and  impressions  in 
the  air,  as  foretelling  troubles  and 
changes  to  States  ;  I  shall  believe 
there  cannot  be  a  more  ill-boding 
sign  to  a  nation,  (God  turn  the  omen 
from  us!)  than  when  the  inhabitants, 
to  avoid  insufferable  grievances  at 
home,  are  enforced  by  heaps  to  for- 
sake their  native  country."  Prose 
Works,  i.  37,  (Symmons's  ed.) 

These  Rfxords  of  the  Governor 
and  Company  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay  in  New-England,  before  the 
bringing  over  of  the  Charter  by  Gov. 
Winthrop,  now  for  the  first  time 
printed  from  the  original  manuscript 
in  the  archives  of   the    Common- 


wealth, are  for  the  most  part,  in 
good  order  and  preservation.  This 
is  especially  true  of  by  much  the 
larger  and  more  important  portion  of 
them,  kept  after  the  organization  of 
the  Government  and  the  choice  of 
Officers,  May  13,  1629,  when  Wil- 
liam Burgess  was  chosen  Secretary, 
whose  handwriting  is  very  distinct 
and  legible.  The  preceding  por- 
tion, kept  by  the  first  Secretary, 
John  Washburn,  who  wrote  an  exe- 
crable hand,  is  considerably  mutila- 
ted on  the  edges,  particularly  the 
lower  edge,  by  the  constant  wear 
and  tear  of  two  hundred  years  and 
more.  One  leaf,  too,  at  least,  if  not 
more,  is  missing,  as  stated  on  page 
66.  Still,  torn  and  tattered  though 
it  be,  it  is  a  most  interesting  and 
invaluable  relic  ;  and  the  Record, 
taken  as  a  whole,  constitutes  an 
authentic  history,  such  as  no  other 
Colony,  ancient  or  modern,  pos- 
sesses, of  its  origin  and  foundation. 
The  copy  of  this  Record  in  the  Land 
Office  is  inaccurate  and  worthless. 
Great  pains  have  been  taken  to  se- 
cure entire  correctness  in  the  copy 
from  which  this  is  printed,  by  a  mi- 
nute and  patient  collation  of  it  with 
the  original  manuscript,  at  long  in- 
tervals of  time,  and  by  different  eyes 
and  hands. 


GOV.  CRADOCK'S   LETTER 


TO 


CAPTAIN   ENDICOTT. 


CHAPTER   IV. 


CUADOCK  S    LETTER,    TO    ENDICOTT. 


Worthy  Sir  and  my  loving  Friend, 

All  due   commendations  premised  to  yourself  ^^^^• 
and  second  self,  with  hearty  well-wishes  from  myself  ^q^ 
and  many  others,  well-willers   and  adventurers   in  Feb. 
this  our  Plantation,  to  yourself  and  the  rest  of  your    ^^* 
good   company,    of  whose   safe    arrival   being   now 
thoroughly  informed  by  your   letters,   bearing  date 
the  13th  September   last,  which  came  to  my  hands 
the  13th  this   instant   February,  we   do   not  a  little 
rejoice  ;  and  to  hear  that  my  good  cousin,  your  wife, 
were  perfectly  recovered  of  her  health,  would  be  ac- 
ceptable news  to  us  all ;  which  God  grant,  in  his 
good  time,  that  we  may.^ 

Meanwhile  I  am,  in  the  behalf  of  our  whole  Com- 
pany, (which  are  much  enlarged  since  your  depart- 

*  She  did  not  live  long  ;  for  we  the   physician   of  New   Plymouth, 

find   by  C4ov.  Winthrop's   Journal,  who  we  know  \isited  Salem  on  pro- 

that   Endicott   was   man-led   again,  fessional  duty  in  the  time  of  prevail- 

August  18,  1630,  to  Elizabeth  Gib-  mg  sickness  there.    "Dr.  Noddy  did 

son.     The  unscrupulous  Morton,  in  a  great  cure   for  Capt.  Littleworth. 

his  New  English  Canaan,  chap.  18,  He  cured  him  of  a  disease  called  a 

intimates  that  the  first  wife  was  kill-  wife."     See  note  on  page  32,  and 

ed  by  the  quackery  of  Dr.  Fuller,  Wintlirop's  N.  E.,  i.  30. 


132  MORE    COLONISTS    COMING    OVER. 

cpiAP.  lire  out  of  England,)^  to  giA^e  you  hearty  thanks  for 
your  large  advice  contained  in  this  your  letter,  which 
I  have  fully  imparted  unto  them,  and  farther  to  cer- 
tify you  that  they  intend  not  to  be  wanting  by  all 
good  means  to  further  the  Plantation.  To  which 
purpose,  (God  willing,)  you  shall  hear  more  at  [large 
from]  them,  and  that  speedily  ;  there  being  one  ship 
bought  for  the  Company, ~  of  100^  tons,  and  two 
others  hired,  of  about  200  tons  each  of  them,  one  of 
19,  the  other  of  20''  pieces  of  ordnance ;  besides,  not 
unlike  but  one  other  vessel  shall  come  in  company 
with  these ;  in  all  which  ships,  for  the  general 
stock  and  for  particular  adventures,  there  is  likely 
to  be  sent  thither  'twixt  2  and  300  persons,  (we 
hope  to  reside  there,)  and  about  100  head  of  cattle. 
Wherefore,  as  I  wrote  you  in  a  letter^  sent  by  Mr. 
Allerton,^  of  New-Plymouth,  in  November  last,  so 
the  desire  of  the  [Company]  is,  that  you  would  en- 
deavour to  get  convenient  housing  fit  to  lodge  as 
many  as  you  can  against  they  do  come  ;  and  withal 
what  beaver,  or  other  commodities,  or  fish,  (if  you 
have  the  means  to  preserve  it,)  can  be  gotten  ready 
to  return  in  the  foresaid  ships  ;  likewise  wood,  if  no 
better  lading  be  to  be  had  ;  that  you  would  endeav- 
our to  get  in  readiness  what  you  can,  whereby  our 
ships,  whereof  two  are  to  return  back  directly  hither, 


*  Endicott  left  Enijland  about  June  before  it  was  mutilated.  Felt,  Annals 

20,    1628.     His    instructions   were  of  Salem,  i.  47,  errs  in  saying  200. 

dated  London,  May  30.    See  pp.  13,  *  Erased  in  the  MS.,  but  restored 

30,  43  ;    Prince's  Annals,    p.  249  ;  from   Prince.      Felt,   ibid,    errs   in 

Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  9.  callinn-  it  10. 

^  This  was  the  Lion's  Whelp,  a  *  Tliis   letter  has   not  been  pre- 

vessel  of  120  tons.  served. 

^  This  is  obliterated  in  the  MS.  ^  Sec  an  account  of  Isaac  Aller- 

I  have  restored  it  from  Prince,  An-  ton  in  the  Chronicles  of  Plymouth, 

iials,  p.  253,  who  quoted  the  letter  p.  195. 


COMMODITIES    TO    BE    SENT    HOME.  133 

may  not  come  wholly  empty.     There  hath  not  been  chap. 

a  better  time  for  the  sale  of  timber  these  two  seven 

years  than  at  present,  and  therefore  pity  it  is  these  i^^o. 
ships  should  come  back  empty,  if  it  might  be  made  is.' 
ready  that  they  need  not  stay  for  it ;  otherwise,  men's 
wages  and  victuals,  together  with  the  ships',  will 
quickly  rise  too  high,  if  to  be  reladen  with  wood, 
and  that  the  same  be  not  ready  to  put  aboard  as  soon 
as  the  ships  are  discharged  of  their  outward  lading. 
I  wish  also  that  there  be  some  sassafras^  and  sarsa- 
parilla  sent  us,  as  also  good  store  of  sumach,  if  there 
to  be  had,  as  we  are  informed  there  is.  The  like  do 
I  wish  for  a  ton  weight  at  least  of  silk  grass,  and  of 
aught  else  that  may  be  useful  for  dying,  or  in  physic ; 
to  have  some  of  each  sent,  and  advice  given  withal 
what  store  of  each  to  be  had  there,  ^f  vent  may  be 
found  here  for  it.  Also  I  hope  you  will  have  some 
good  sturgeon  in  a  readiness  to  send  us,  and  if  it  be 
well  cured,  2  or  300  firkins  thereof  would  help  well 
towards  our  charge. 

We  are  very  confident  of  your  best  endeavours  for 
the  general  good,  and  we  doubt  not  but  God  will  in 
mercy  give  a  blessing  upon  our  labors  ;  and  we  trust 
you  will  not  be  unmindful  of  the  main  end  of  our 
Plantation,  by  endeavouring  to  bring  the  Indians  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  Gospel ;  which  that  it  may  be 
the  speedier  and  better  effected,  the  earnest  desire 
of  our  whole  Company  is,  that  you  have  a  diligent 
and  watchful  eye  over  our  own  people,  that  they  live 
unblamable  and  without  reproof,  and  demean  them- 
selves justly  and  courteous  towards  the  Indians, 
thereby  to  draw  them  to  affect  our  persons,  and  con- 

'  See  Chronicles  of  Plymouth,  p.  130,  note  '. 


134  THE    CONVERSION    OF    THE    NATIVES. 

CHAP,  sequently  our  religion  ;  as  also  to  endeavour  to  get 
some  of  their  children  to  train  up  to  reading  and  con- 
sequently to  religion,  whilst  they  are  young  ;  herein 
to  young  or  old  to  omit  no  good  opportunity  that 
may  tend  to  bring  them  out  of  that  woful  state  and 
condition  they  now  are  in  ;  in  which  case  our  prede- 
cessors in  this  our  land  sometimes  w^ere,  and,  but'for 
the  mercy  and  goodness  of  our  good  God,  might  have 
continued  to  this  day.  But  God,  who  out  of  the 
boundless  ocean  of  his  mercy  hath  showed  pity  and 
compassion  to  our  land,  he  is  all-sufficient,  and  can 
bring  this  to  pass  which  we  now  desire,  in  that  coun- 
try likewise.  Only  let  us  not  be  wanting  on  our 
parts,  now  we  are  called  to  this  work  of  the  Lord's  ; 
neither,  having  put  our  hands  to  the  plough,  let  us 
look  back,  but  go  on  cheerfully,  and  depend  upon 
God  for  a  blessing  upon  our  labors  ;  who  by  weak 
instruments  is  able,  (if  he  see  it  good,)  to  bring  glo- 
rious things  to  pass.  Be  of  good  courage,  go  on, 
and  do  worthily,  and  the  Lord  prosper  your  en- 
deavour. 

It  is  fully  resolved,  by  God's  assistance,  to  send 
over  two  ministers,  at  the  least,  with  the^  ships  now 
intended  to  be  sent  thither.     But  for  Mr.  Peters,- 


•  "  At  the  least,  with  the  "  is  re-  of  the  Puritans,  he  v^ent  to  Holland, 

stored  from  Prince.  and   hconme  pnslor  of  an  Indcpend- 

^  Hugh  Peters,   (or  Peter,  as  he  cnt   Church   at   Potterdam,  having 

himself  uniformly  spelt  his  name,)  for  a  colleague  the  celebrated  Dr. 

was  born  at  Fowey,  in  Cornwall,  in  William    Ames,    whose   wife    and 

1599,  and  was  educated   at   Trinity  cliildren,    after   his   death  in  1G33, 

College,  Cambridge,  where  he  took  came    to    New-England,    bringing 

the  degree  of  A.  M.  in  1022.    V\m\  with  them  his  valuable  lil)rary.  ''Pe''- 

Icaving  the   University  he  came  to  ters  was  one  of  the  earliest  members 

London,  and  was  appointed  lecturer  of  the  Massachusetts  Company.     In 

at  St.    Sepulclire's.     Towards  the  May,    1028,  he  subscribed   i."50  to 

close   of  1()29,  when   Laud,  ("  our  the  joint  stock  of  the  Plantation,  and 

great   enemy,"    as   Winthrop  calls  he   was   one   of  the   fourteen  who 

lam,  ii.  31,)  began   his  persecution  signed  the  first  instructions  to  Endi- 


HUGH    PETERS. 


135 


he  is  now  in  Holland,  from  whence  his  return  hither  chap. 

IV. 

I  hold  to  be  uncertain.     Those  we  send  you,  shall  — ^^-^ 
be  by  the^  approbation  of  Mr.  White,  of  Dorchester,  1629. 
and  Mr.  Davenport.     For  whatsoever  else  you  have    ^f' 
given  advice,  care  shall  be  taken,  (God  willing,)  to 


cott,  Sept.  13,  1628.  It  appears 
from  pages  69  and  70,  that  he  at- 
tended the  courts  of  the  Company 
held  on  the  Uth  and  13th  of  May, 
1629,  three  months  after  the  date  of 
this  letter.  Of  course  he  must  have 
come  over,  for  a  season,  from  Hol- 
land. After  remaining  six  years 
in  that  country  he  came  to  New- 
England  Oct.  6,  1635.  Gov.  Win- 
throp,  speaking  of  his  arrival,  says, 
"  amongst  others  came  Mr.  Peter, 
pastor  of  the  English  church  in  Rot- 
terdam, who,  being  persecuted  by  the 
English  ambassador — who  would 
have  brought  his  and  other  churches 
to  the  English  discipline  —  and  not 
having  had  his  health  these  many 
years,  intended  to  advise  with  the 
ministers  here  about  his  removal." 
Dec.  21,  1636,  he  took  charge  of 
the  Church  in  Salem,  being  the 
fourth  minister,  Higginson  and  Skel- 
ton  having  died,  and  Roger  Wil- 
liams having  left  in  Nov.  1635. 
Winthrop  calls  him  ' '  a  man  of  a 
very  public  spirit  and  singular  activ- 
ity for  all  occasions,"  and  says  that 
"  he  went  from  place  to  place  labor- 
ing, both  publicly  and  privately,  to 
raise  up  men  to  a  public  frame  of 
spirit."  In  1641,  Aug.  3,  he  was 
sent  with  Thomas  Weld,  the  ininister 
of  Roxbury,  as  agent  of  the  Colony 
to  attend  to  its  interests  in  the  mo- 
ther country,  and  "  to  congratulate 
the  happy  success  there."  Neither 
of  them  returned.  During  the  civil 
wars  Peters  made  himself  active  and 
conspicuous.  In  1641  he  was  "chap- 
lain to  the  train,"  and  secretary  to 
Cromwell.  In  1649  he  was  chap- 
lain to  the  Parliamentary  forces  sent 
against  the  rebels  in  Ireland,  and  one 
of  the  Triers  of  preachers,  and  in 
1651  was  one  of  the  commissioners 
for  amending  the  laws.    At  the  Re- 


storation he  was  apprehended  as  a 
regicide,  although  he  had  not  been 
one  of  the  King's  judges,  was  tried, 
condemned,  and  executed  Oct.  16, 
1660.  After  his  death,  his  wife, 
whom  he  had  married  in  New-Eng- 
land, and  who  had  been  insane,  re- 
turned to  this  Colony,  and  was  sup- 
ported by  a  collection  of  jC30  a  year 
until  1071.  Gov.  John  Winthrop, 
of  Connecticut,  married  a  daughter 
of  Hugh  Peters.  —  The  common  ac- 
counts we  have  of  Peters,  Vane, 
Cromwell,  and  their  associates,  are 
from  the  pens  of  bigoted  royalists 
and  churchmen,  like  Clarendon.  A 
new  and  more  favorable  view  of 
Cromwell  has  recently  been  given 
to  the  world  by  the  ingenious  editor 
of  his  Letters  and  Speeches.  I  have 
been  favored  with  the  perusal,  in 
manuscript,  of  a  very  able  vindica- 
tion of  the  character  of  Hugh  Peters, 
from  the  pen  of  a  recent  successor 
of  his  in  the  First  Church  in  Salem, 
the  Rev.  Charles  W.  Upham,  of 
whose  Life  of  Sir  Henry  Vane,  in 
the  fourth  volume  of  Sparks's  Amer- 
ican Biography,  Mr.  Grahame,  the 
historian  of  the  United  States,  re- 
marks, "  New-England  has  now  re- 
paid Vane's  noble  devotion  by  the 
best  memoir  of  that  great  man,  that 
has  ever  been  given  to  the  world." 
It  is  hoped  that  Mr.  Upham's  Life 
of  Hugh  Peters  may  soon  be  pub- 
lished. See  Winthrop's  Hist.  i.  65, 
169,  173,  176,  ii.  24,  25,  31  ;  Hutch- 
inson's Mass.,  i.  9,  98;  Carlyle's 
Cromwell,  i.  164,  186,  370 ;  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.,  vi.  250-254,  285, 
xxviii.  248  ;  Monthly  Repository, 
(London,)  xiv.  525-532,  602-607  ; 
Peters 's  Last  Legacy  to  his  Daugh- 
ter, (1661,)  p.  99. 

^  "  Shall  be  by  the"  also  restor- 
ed from  Prince. 


136  THE  PLANTING  OF  TOBACCO. 

CHAF.  perform  the  needful,  as  near  as  we  can,  and  the  times 

IV. 

will    permit ;  whereof  also  you  may    expect    more 

IG29.  ample  advertisement  in  their  General  Letter,^  when 
•^g'"    God  shall  send  our  ships  thither. 

The  course  you  have  taken  in  giving  our  country- 
men their  content  in  the  point  of  planting  tobacco 
there  for  the  present,  (their  necessity  considered,) 
is  not  disallowed  ;  but  we  trust  in  God,  other  means 
will  be  found  to  employ  their  time  more  comfortable 
and  profitable  also  in  the  end  ;  and  we  cannot  but 
generally  approve  and  commend  their  good  resolu- 
tion to  desist  from  the  planting  thereof,  whenas  they 
shall  discern  how  to  employ  their  labors  otherwise  ; 
which  we  hope  they  will  be  speedily  induced  unto, 
by  such  precepts  and  examples  as  we  shall  give 
them. 

And  now  minding  to  conclude  this,  I  may  not 
omit  to  put  you  in  mind,  however  you  seem  to  fear 
no  enemies  there,  yet  that  you  have  a  watchful  eye 
for  your  own  safety,  and  the  safety  of  all  those  of  our 
nation  with  you,  and  not  to  be  too  confident  of  the 
fidelity  of  the  salvages.  It  is  [a  proverb  trite]  as 
true,  "  the  burnt  child  dreads  the  fire."  Our  coun- 
trymen have  suffered  by  their  too  much  confidence  in 
Virginia.^  Let  us  by  their  harms  learn  to  beware  ; 
and  as  we  are  commanded  to  be  innocent  as  doves, 
so  withal  we  are  enjoined  to  be  wise  as  serpents. 
The  God  of  heaven  and  earth  preserve  and  keep  you 

*  The  General  Letter  from  the  Go-  Indians,  hy  a  preconcerted  signal, 
vernor  and  Company  to  Endicott  is  fell  upon  tlio  English  settlements 
printed  immediately  after  this  letter  there,  and  killed  347  persons.  See 
ofCradock's.  Smith's  Virginia,  ii.  (54-79,  (Rich- 

*  He  probably  alludes  to  the  mas-  niond  ed.)  ;  Stith's  Virginia,  pages 
sacre  in  Virginia,  on  the  22d  of  208-213;  and  Grahame's  Hist.  U.  S, 
March,  1022,  when,  at  mid-day,  the  i.  74-7'J,  (2d  ed.) 


MATTHEW    CRADOCK,  OF    LONDON. 


137 


from  all  forei«;n  and   inland  enemies,  and  bless  and  chap. 

.                                   .                        .             IV. 
prosper  this  Plantation,  to  the  enlarging  of  the  king 

dom  of  Jesus  Christ  ;   to  whose  merciful  protection  I  1629. 

.  •      Feb. 

recommend  3'ou  and  all  your  associates  there,  known     ig.* 
or   unknown  ;    and  so  till  my  next,  w^hich  shall  be, 
(God  willing,)  by  our  ships,  who  I  make  account  will 
be  ready  to  set  sail  from  here  about  the  20th  of  this 
next  month  of  March, ^  I  end  ;   and  rest. 
Your  assured  loving  friend  and  cousin, 

Matthew  Cradock.^ 

From  my  house  in  Swithen''s  Lane^  near  London  Stone., 
this  \Qth  Februari/,  1628,  stilo  AngliccA 


'  The  ships  did  not  actually  sail 
till  the  middle  of  April. 

*  Matthew  Cradock,  the  first 
Governor  of  the  Massachusetts  Com- 
pany, was  a  wealthy  London  mer- 
chant, and,  it  will  be  recollected, 
was  usually  the  highest  in  all  sub- 
scriptions for  the  good  of  the  Colo- 
ny. He  owned  the  Ambrose  and 
the  Jewel,  two  of  the  ships  in  Win- 
throp's  fleet,  and  went  to  the  Isle  of 
Wight  to  take  leave  of  the  emi- 
grants. On  his  leaving  the  xlrbella 
on  the  29th  of  March,  "  the  captain 
gave  him  a  farewell  with  four  or  five 
shot."  He  came  al)oard  the  same 
vessel  again  at  Yarmouth,  April  6, 
and  on  hi?  taking  leave,  "  the  cap- 
tain gave  him  three  shot  out  of  the 
steerage  for  a  farewell."  He  never 
came  over  to  New-England  ;  but  he 
continued  to  take  an  interest  in  the 
Colony,  and  befriended  it  essentially 
at  home.  He  had  an  agent  and  ser- 
vants here,  and  capital  engaged  in 
fishing  and  trading.  He  had  a  house 
at  Marblehead  and  another  at  Ips- 
wich, and  employed  fishermen  at 
both  places.  His  name  frequently 
occurs  in  the  Records  of  the  Colony. 
At  a  Court  held  at  Water  town, 
March  8, 1C31,  "  it  was  ordered  that 
Thomas  Fox,  servant  to  Mr.  Crad- 
ock,  shall  be  whipped."  Nov.  7, 
1632,     "Mr.  Matthew   Cradock  is 


fined  £\  for  his  men  being  absent 
from  training  divers  times."  At  a 
Court  held  March  4,  1634,  "the 
wear  at  Mistick  is  granted  to  John 
^Vinthrop,  Esq.,  present  Govcrnin-, 
and  to  Mr.  INIatthew  Cradock,  of 
London."  March  4,  1635,  "All 
the  ground,  as  well  upland  as  mea- 
dow, lying  and  being  betwixt  the 
lands  of  ]\Ir.  Nowell  and  Mr.  Wil- 
son on  the  east,  and  the  partition 
betwixt  Mistick  bounds  on  the  west, 
bounded  with  Mistick  river  on  the 
south  and  the  rocks  on  the  north,  is 
granted  to  Mr.  Matthew  Cradock, 
merchant,  to  enjoy  to  him  and  his 
heirs  forever."  This  farm  was 
within  the  present  town  of  Maiden, 
opposite  W'inthrop's  farm  at  Ten- 
hills.  William  Wood,  who  was 
here  in  1633,  says  in  his  New-Eng- 
land's Prospect,  chap,  x.,  "  On  the 
east  side  (of  Mistick  river)  is  Mr. 
Cradock's  plantation,  where  he  hath 
impaled  a  park,  where  he  keeps  his 
cattle  till  he  can  store  it  with  deer. 
Here  likewise  he  is  at  charges  of 
building  ships.  The  last  year  one 
was  upon  the  stocks  of  100  tons. 
That  being  finished,  they  are  to 
build  one  twice  her  burden."  He 
was  a  member  of  Parliament  from 
the  city  of  London  in  1640.  He  left 
a  claim  upon  the  Colony,  which  in 
1648   amounted    to    £679   65.   4<?. 


138 


CRADOCK  S    LETTER. 


His  widow,  Rebecca,  married  the 
Rev.  Benjamin  Whitchcot,  D.  D. 
His  son  or  grandson  was  a  dissent- 
1629.  "'p  minister  at  Wickambrook  in 
1690.  A  descendant.  Georg-e  Cra- 
dock,  was  an  inlialiitant  of  ]3oston  in 
the  middle  of  the  last  century.  See 
Col.  Rec.  i.  68,  95,  108,  143  ;  Win- 
throp's  Hist.  i.  2,  4,60,  124,  ii.  25  ; 
Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  18,  22  ;  Felt, 
Annals  of  Salem,  i.  50. 

^  It  will  be  observed  that  he  does 
not  say,  St.  Swithin's.  On  St. 
Swithin's  Lane  and  London  Stone, 
see  Stow's  Survey  of  London,  p.  416 
and  420,  (ed.  1618.)  St.  Swhhin's 
Lane  goes  from  near  the  junction  of 
Cornhill  and  Lombard  street  to  Can- 
non street.  It  is  the  street  next 
east  of  Walbrook,  and  i)arallel  to  it. 

■*  That  is,  old  style,  by  which  the 
year  began  on  the  25th  of  March, 


The  Julian  year,  and  the  new  or 
Gregorian  style,  were  not  adopted 
by  law  in  England  and  her  depend- 
encies tdl  1752. 

This  letter  must  have  been 
brought  over  by  some  fishing-vessel, 
for  we  know  of  no  ship  of  the 
Company's  sailing  from  England 
to  Salem  till  the  middle  of  April, 
when  the  George  Bonaventure 
brought  the  First  General  Letter  of 
Instructions  to  Endicott.  The  ori- 
ginal letter  lies  loose  in  the  first 
volume  of  the  Colony  Records, 
where  it  has  probably  lain  for  more 
than  two  hundred  years.  Like  the 
volume  itself,  it  is  in  a  tattered  con- 
dition ;  and  it  is  a  marvel  that  it 
exists  at  all.  Several  words,  now 
torn  off,  I  have  restored  from  a  copy 
made  twenty-seven  years  ago,  when 
the  letter  wag  less  mutilated. 


THE  COMPANY'S  INSTRUCTIONS 


TO 


ENDICOTT   AND   HIS  COUNCIL. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE  company's  FIRST  GENERAL  LETTER  OF  INSTRUC- 
TIONS TO  ENDICOTT  AND  HIS  COUNCIL. 

LAUS    DEO!> 

In  Gravesend,  the  11th  of  April,  1629. 
Loving  Friends, 

We  heartily  salute  you.  We  have  received  your  chap. 
letter^  of  the  13th  of  September,  by  which  we  take  ^^ — — 
notice  of  your  safe  arrival,  blessina;  God  for  it.     We  1629. 

•^  ^  April 

have  formerly  requested  Mr.  Cradock,  our  Governor,  i7. 
to  write  you  of  the  receipt  thereof,  and  give  advice 
how  we  purposed  to  proceed  in  setting  forward  our 
Plantation  ;  whose  letters,  if  they  be  come  to  your 
hands,  (as  we  hope  they  are,)  will  put  life  into  your 
affairs,  and  encourage  you  to  provide  for  the  enter- 
tainment of  such  as  are  now  coming. 

Since  your  departure  we  have,  for  the  further 
strengthening  of  our  grant  from  the  Council  at  Ply- 
mouth, obtained  a  confirmation  of  it  from  his  Majesty 

*  A  not  unusual  mode   of  com-        ^  This  letter  has  not  been   pie- 
mencing  a  letter  at  the  time  this     served, 
was  written.     See  Carlyle's  Crom- 
well, i.  132. 


142  THE    COLONY    CHARTER. 


CHAP,  by  his  letters  patents  under  the  broad  seal  of  Eng- 
-~  land  ;'  by  which  said  letters  patents  we  are  incorpo- 
1629.  rated  into  a  body  politic,  with  ample  power  to  govern 
"^7"^  and  rule  all  his  Majesty's  subjects  that  reside  within 
the  limits  of  our  Plantation,  as  by  the  duplicate^ 
thereof,  under  the  broad  seal,  which  we  have  deliv- 
ered to  Mr.  Sharpe  to  be  delivered  to  you,  doth  fully 
appear. 

And  for  that  the  propagating  of  the  Gospel  is  the 
thing  we  do  profess  above  all  to  be  our  aim  in  set- 
•  tling  this  Plantation,  we  have  been  careful  to  make 
plentiful  provision  of  godly  ministers;  by  whose  faith- 
ful preaching,  godly  conversation,  and  exemplary 
life,  we  trust  not  only  those  of  our  own  nation  will 
be  built  up  in  the  knowledge  of  God,  but  also  the 
Indians  may,  in  God's  appointed  time,  be  reduced  to 
the  obedience  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.^  One  of  them 
is  well  known  to  yourself,  viz.  Mr.  Skelton,''  whom  we 

*  The  original  Charter,  with  the  '^  This  duplicate  of  the  Charter  is 
broad  seal  appendant,  which  was  preserved  in  the  Athensunni  at  Sa- 
broiight  over  by  Gov.  Winthrop,  is  lem.  The  party-colored  string,  by 
carefully  preserved  in  a  glass  case  which  the  royal  seal  was  appended, 
in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  remains,  but  the  seal  itself  is  gone, 
at  the  State  House  in  Boston.  It  is  ^  Cradock,  in  his  letter  to  Endi- 
distinctly  and  beautifully  engrossed  cott,  mentions  this  as  "  the  main 
on  parchment,  and  has  on  it  the  head  end  of  the  Plantation,"  and  the 
of  the  sovereign  by  whom  it  was  Charter  also  avers,  that  "  to  win  and 
granted,  Charles  I.  That  this  is  the  invite  the  natives  of  the  country  to 
original,  and  not  a  copy,  is  proved  the  knowledge  and  obedience  of  the 
by 'the  fact  that  on  it  is  the  follow-  only  true  God  and  Saviour  of  man- 
in"-  certificate  of  Gov.  Cradock  hav-  kind  and  the  Christian  faith,  in  our 
ing  taken  his  oath  of  office  before  royal  intention,  and  the  adventurers' 
Sir  Charles  Caesar,  Master  in  Clum-  free  profession,  is  the  principal  end 
eery.  "  Praidictus  Matthanis  Cra-  of  this  Plantation." 
docke  inratus  est  de  fule  et  oljcdi-  ■"  Samuel  Skelton  was  educated 
entia  Hegi  et  successoribus  suis,  et  at  Clare  Hall,  Cambridge,  where  he 
de  debita  cxequutione  officii  Guber-  took  the  degree  of  A.  B.  in  1011, 
natoris  juxta  lenorem  pra-senlium,  and  of  A.  M.  in  1615.  He  is  said 
18"  Martii,  1028,  coram  me,  Carolo  by  Mather  to  have  come  from  Lin- 
Ca^sare,  Milite,  in  Cancellaria  Ma-  colnshire  ;  but  as  it  is  here  related 
gistro.  that  l<;ndicott  "  formerly  received 
Char.  C^sak."  nmch  good  by  his  ministry,"  it  is 


MINISTERS    FOR,    THE    COLONY.  143 

have  the  rather  desired  to  bear  a  part  in  this  work,  chap. 

for  that  we  are  informed  yourself  have  formerly  re-  • ■ 

ceived  much  good  by  his  ministry  ;  he  conieth  in  the  162  9. 
George  Bonaventure,  Master  Thomas  Cox.    Another     17? 
is  Mr.  Higgeson/  a  grave   man,  and  of  worthy  com- 
mendations ;  he  Cometh  in  the  Talbot.     The  third  is 
Mr.  Bright,^  some  times  trained  up  under  Mr.  Daven- 
port,  who   cometh  in  the  Lion's  Whelp.     We  pray 
you,  accommodate  them  all  with  necessaries  as  well 
as  you  may,  and  in  convenient   time  let  there  be 
houses  built  them,  according  to  the  agreement^  we     . 
have  made  with  them,  copies  whereof,  as  of  all  others 
we  have  entertained,  shall  be  sent  you  by  the  next 
ships,  time  not  permitting  it  now.     We  doubt  not 
but  these  gentlelnen,  your  ministers,  will  agree  lov- 
ingly together  ;^  and  for  cherishing  of  love  betwixt 
them,  we  pray  you  carry  yourself  impartially  to  all. 

more  probable  that  he  was  of  Dor-  Salem  route,  about  200  acres,  grant- 
setshire,  from  which  county  Eiidi-  ed  to  Mr.  Samuel  Skelton,  called  by 
cott  came.  Nothing  is  known  of  his  the  Indians  Wahquack.  Also  there 
history  whilst  in  England.  Arriv-  is  granted  to  Mr.  Skelton  one  acre 
ing  at  Naumkeak  on  the  24th  of  of  land  on  which  his  house  standeth, 
June,  he  was,  on  the  20th  of  July,  and  ten  acres  more  in  a  neck  of  land 
chosen  and  ordained  pastor  of  the  abutting  on  the  south  river,  and 
church  there  ;  and  from  this  circum-  upon  Mr.  Higgenson"s  ground  on 
stance  it  has  been  inferred  that  he  the  west.  Likewise  there  is  grant- 
was  older  than  Higginson,  who  at  ed  to  Mr.  Skelton  two  acres  more 
the  same  time  was  chosen  and  or-  of  ground  lying  in  Salem,  abutting 
dained  teacher.  He  died  at  Salem  on  Capt.  Endicott's  ground  on  the 
August  2,  1634.  Edward  Johnson,  south."  See  Col.  Rec.  i.  90,  MS. ; 
who  was  one  of  Winthrop's  compa-  Winthrop,  i.  137  ;  Mather,  i.  331  ; 
ny,  and  may  have  known  him  per-  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  iii.  67.  xii.  71, 
sonally,  describes  him,  in  his  quaint  xxviii.  248. 

way,    as    "a   man    of   a    gracious  '  Some  account  of  Higginson  and 

speech,  fuU  of  faith,  and  furnished  Bright  will  be  given  hereafter,  under 

by  the  Lord  with  gifts  from  above  the  date  when  the  former  died,  and 

to   begin  this   great    work  of  His,  the  latter  returned  home, 

that  makes  the  whole  earth  to  ring  -  This  agreeinent   is    preserved, 

again  at  the  present  day."     It  is  a  and  is  printed  in  a  subsequent  part 

little   remarkable  that  we   have  no  of  this  volume, 

further  accounts   of  him   from   the  ^  Bright  did  not  agree  very  well 

writers  of  that  or  the  succeeding  age.  with  his  colleagues,  and  returned  to 

"July 3, 1632,  there  is  another  neck  England  in  little  more  than  a  year, 
of  land,  lying  about  three  miles  from 


144  THE  governor's  council. 

CHAP.  For  the  manner  of  the  exercising  their  ministry,  and 

teaching  both  our  own  people  and  the  Indians,  we 

1629.  leave  that  to  themselves,  hoping  they  will  make 
^ff^^  God's  word  the  rule  of  their  actions,  and  mutually 
agree  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties.  And  because 
their  doctrine  will  hardly  be  well  esteemed  whose 
persons  are  not  reverenced,  we  desire  that  'both 
by  your  own  example,  and  by  commanding  all  others 
to  do  the  like,  our  ministers  may  receive  due 
honor. 

We  have,  in  prosecution  of  that  good  opinion  we 
have  always  had  of  you,  confirmed  you  Governor  of 
our  Plantation,  and  joined  in  commission  with  you 
the  three  ministers,  namely,  Mr.  Francis  Higgonson, 
Mr.  Samuel  Skelton,  and  Mr.  Francis  Bright ;  also 
Mr.  John  and  Mr.  Samuel  Browne,  Mr.  Thomas 
Graves,  and  Mr.  Samuel  Sharpe  ;  and  for  that  we 
have  ordered  that  the  body  of  the  government  there 
shall  consist  of  thirteen  persons,  we  are  content  the 
old  planters  ^  that  are  now  there  within  our  Planta- 
tion and  limits  thereof,  shall  choose  two  of  the  dis- 
creetest  and  judicial  men  from  amongst  themselves 
to  be  of  the  government,  that  they  may  see  we  are 
not  wanting  to  give  them  fitting  respect,  in  that  we 
would  have  their  consent,  (if  it  may  be,)  in  mak- 
ing wholesome  constitutions  for  government :  always 
provided,  that  none  shall  be  chosen,  or  meddle  in 
their  choice,  but  such  as  will  live  amongst  us  and 
conform  themselves  to  our  government.  But  if  they 
shall  refuse  to  perform  this  our  direction,  then  we 

*  The  old  planters  were  Conant,  at   Cape  Ann,    and  after^vards   re- 
Palfrey,  Woodbury,  Balch,  and  their  moved  to  Naumkeag.     See  pp.  12, 
associates,  wlio  hud  been  induced  by  22-28. 
the  Dorchester  adventurers  to  settle 


THE    OLD    PLANTERS.  145 

hereby  authorize  you  and  those  nominated  to  be  of  chap. 

the  Council   aforesaid,    to  nominate   and   elect  two 

such  men  as  in  your  opinions  you  shall  hold  meet  for  1629. 
that  place  and  office  ;  and  for  the  other  three  which  '  ^j] 
will  be  wanting  to  make  up  the  full  number  of  thir- 
teen, (which  we  have  styled  the  Council  of  the  Mat- 
tachusetts  Bay,)  we  hereby  authorize  [you,]  with  the 
aforenamed  seven  persons,  to  choose  and  nominate 
them  out  of  the  whole  body  of  the  Company,  as  well 
of  those  that  are  there,  as  of  those  that  are  to  come 
now,  not  doubting  but,  all  partiality  set  apart,  you 
will  make  choice  of  such  men  as  may  be  most  useful 
and  careful  to  advance  the  general  good  of  our  Plan- 
tation. 

And  that  it  may  appear,  as  well  to  all  the  world, 
as  to  the  old  planters  themselves,  that  we  seek  not 
to  make  them  slaves,  (as  it  seems  by  your  letter 
some  of  them  think  themselves  to  be  become  by 
means  of  our  Patent,^)  we  are  content  they  shall  be 
partakers  of  such  privileges  as  we,  from  his  Majesty's 
especial  grace,  with  great  cost,  favor  of  personages 
of  note,  and  much  labor,  have  obtained  ;  and  that 
they  shall  be  incorporated  into  this  Society,  and  en- 
joy not  only  those  lands  which  formerly  they  have 
manured,  but  such  a  further  proportion  as  by  the  ad- 
vice and  judgment  of  yourself,  and  the  rest  of  the 
Council,  shall  be  thought  fit  for  them,  or  any  of 
them.  And  besides,  it  is  still  our  purpose  that  they 
should  have  some  benefit  by  the  common  stock,  as 

'  Conant  and  his    associates,  as  government,  and  their  httle  planta- 

was   very  natural,  appear  to   have  tion  absorbed  by  his  Colony.     The 

been  jealous  of  the  new  comers  v/ho  Massachusetts    Company    seem   to 

had  arrived  with   Endicott,  and  pro-  have  treated  the  old  planters  with 

bably  did  not  like  it  that  their  au-  great   consideration    and    kindness, 

thority  was  to  be  superseded  by  his  See  page  31. 
10 


146  THE  PLANTING  OF  TOBACCO. 

CHAP,  was  by  your  first  commission^  directed  and  appoint- 

ed  ;  with  this  addition,  that  if  it  be  held  too  much  to 

^^^^'  take  thirty  per  cent,  and  the  freight  of  the  goods  for 
17.  and  in  consideration  of  our  adventure  and  disburse- 
ment of  our  moneys,  to  be  paid  in  beaver  at  six  shil- 
lings per  pound,  that  you  moderate  the  said  rate,  as 
you  with  the  rest  of  the  Council  shall  think  to  be 
agreeable  to  equity  and  good  conscience.  And  our 
further  orders  is,  that  none  be  partakers  of  any  the 
aforesaid  privileges  and  profits,  but  such  as  be  peace- 
able men,  and  of  honest  life  and  conversation,  and 
desirous  to  live  amongst  us,  and  conform  themselves 
to  good  order  and  government. 

And  as  touching  the  old  planters,  their  earnest 
desire  for  the  present  to  continue  the  planting  of 
tobacco,  (a  trade  by  this  whole  Company  generally 
disavowed,  and  utterly  disclaimed  by  some  of  the 
greatest  adventurers  amongst  us,  who  absolutely 
declared  themselves  unwilling  to  have  any  hand  in 
this  Plantation  if  we  intended  to  cherish  or  permit 
the  planting  thereof,  or  any  other  kind,  than  for  a 
man's  private  use,  for  mere  necessity,)  we  are  of 
opinion  the  old  planters  will  have  small  encourage- 
ment to  that  employment ;  for  we  find  here,  by  late 
experience,  that  it  doth  hardly  produce  the  freight 
and  custom  ;  neither  is  there  hope  of  amendment, 
there  being  such  great  quantities  made  in  other 
places,  that  ere  long  it  is  like  to  be  little  worth. 
Nevertheless,  if  the  old  planters,  (for  we  exclude  all 
others,)  conceive  that  they  cannot  otherwise  provide 
for  their   livelihood,  we  leave  it  to  the  discretion  of 

^  Endicolt's  first  instructions  were  dated  London,  May  30,  1628.     See 
Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  9. 


JOHN  oldham's  pretensions.  147 

yourself  and  the  Council  there,  to  give  way  for  the  chap. 
present  to   their  planting  of  it  in  such  manner  and  — ^ 
with  such  restrictions  as  you  and  the  said  Council  1629. 
shall  think  fitting  ;   having  an  especial  care,  with  as     l'"^ 
much  conveniency  as  may  be,  utterly  to  suppress  the 
planting  of  it,  except  for  mere  necessity.     But,  how- 
ever, we  absolutely  forbid  the  sale  of  it,  or  the  use 
of  it,  by  any  of  our  own  or  particular  men's  servants, 
unless  upon  urgent  occasion,  for  the  benefit  of  health, 
and  taken  privately. 

Mr.  John  Oldham^  came  from  New-En2:land  not 
long  before  your  arrival  there,  by  whom  we  have  had 
no  small  distraction  in  our  business,  having  been  cast 
behind  at  the  least  two  months'  time  in  our  voyage,- 
through  the  variety^  of  his  vast  conceits  of  extraor- 
dinary gain  of  three  for  one  propounded  to  us,  to  be 
made  and  raised  in  three  years,  if  he  might  have  the 
managing  of  our  stock,  preferring  to  be  contented 
for  his  own  employment,  so  he  might  have  the  over- 
plus of  the  gains.  With  whom,  after  long  time  spent 
in  sundry  treaties,*  finding  him  a  man  altogether 
unfit  for  us  to  deal  with,  we  have  at  last  left  him  to 
his  own  way  ;  and,  as  we  are  informed,  he  with  some 
others  are  providing  a  vessel,  and  is  minded,  as  soon 
as  he  can  despatch,  to  come  for  New-England,  pre- 
tending to  settle  himself  in  Mattachusetts  Bay,  claim- 

1  Oldham   left   New-England    in  Higginson,  Skelton,  Samuel  Sliarpe, 

June,  1628,  and  Endicott  left  Eng-  and  their  company.    It  appears  from 

land  June  20,  and  arrived  at  Naum-  page  43,   that   the   Company  were 

keak  Sept.  6.     Of  course  they  must  preparing  for  this  voyage  as  early  as 

have  crossed  each  other  on  the   At-  Feb.  26  ^  yet  the  ships  did  not  sail 

lantic.     See  pp.  20,  43,  and  Mass.  till  after  the  middle  of  April. 

Hist.  Coll.  iii.  63,  and  Prince's  An-  ^  So  in   the  manuscript ;  but  no 

nals,  p.  249.  doubt  an  error  of  the  Secretary,  in 

^  This   was    the   voyage   of  the  copying,  for  vanity. 

George,  the  Talbot,  and  the  Lion's  *  See  pp.  48,  51,  61,  69. 
Whelp,  the  ships  that  brought  out 


148  THE    TRADE    IN    BEAVER. 

CHAP,  ing  a  title  and  right  by  a  grant  from  Sir  Ferdinando 
— '"-^  Gorge's  son,^  which  we  are  well  satisfied  by  good 
1629.  counsel  is  void  in  law.     He  will  admit  of  no  terms  of 
^^I^  agreement,  miless  we  will  leave  him   at  liberty  to 
trade  for  beaver  with  the  natives  ;   which  we  deny  to 
the  best  of  our  own  planters.     Neither  is  he  satisfied 
to  trade  himself,   with  his    own   stock  and  means, 
which  we  conceive  is  so  small  that  it  would  not  much 
hinder  us,  but  he  doth  interest  other  men,  who,  for 
aught  we  know,  are  never  likely  to  be  beneficial  to 
the  planting  of  the   country  ;   their  own  particular 
profits,  (though  to  the  overthrow  of  the  general  Plan- 
tation,) being  their  chief  aim  and  intent. 

Now,  as  we  shall  unwillingly  do  any  act  in  debar- 
ring such  as  were  inhabitants  before  us  of  that  trade, 
as  in  conscience  they  ought  to  enjoy,  so  shall  we  as 
unwillingly  permit  any  to  appropriate  that  to  their 
own  private  lucre  which  we,  in  our  religious  inten- 
tions, have  dedicated  to  the  common  charge  of  build- 
ing houses  for  God's  worship,  and  forts  to  defend 
such  as  shall  come  thither  to  inhabit.^  We  fear  that 
as  he  hath  been  obstinate  and  violent  in  his  opinions 
here,  so  he  will  persist  and  be  ready  to  draw  a  party 
to  himself  there,  to  the  great  hindrance  of  the  com- 
mon quiet.  We  have  therefore  thought  fit  to  give  you 
notice  of  his  disposition,  to  the  end  you  may  be- 
ware how  you  meddle  with  him ;  as  also  that  you  may 
use  the  best  means  you  can  to  settle  an  agreement 
with  the  old  planters,  so  as  they  may  not  hearken  to 
Mr.  Oldham's  dangerous  though  vain  propositions. 
We  find  him  a  man  so  affected  to  his  own  opinion, 

'  Sec  note  *  on  page  51.        **  Sec  page  96. 


CAUTION    ABOUT    OLDHAM.  149 

as  not  to  be  removed  from  it,  neither  by  reason  nor  chap. 

any  persuasion  ;   and,  miless  he  may  bear  sway,  and  

have  all  things  carried  to  his  good  liking,  we  have  i629. 
little  hope  of  quiet  or  comfortable  subsistence  where  n. 
he  shall  make  his  abode.  And  therefore,  if  you  shall 
see  just  cause,  we  hereby  require  you  and  the  Coun- 
cil there  to  exercise  that  power  we  have,  (and  our 
privileges  will  bear  us  out  in  it,^)  to  suppress  a  mis- 
chief before  it  take  too  great  a  head.  Not  that  we 
would  wrong  him,  or  any  man  that  will  live  peacea- 
bly within  the  limits  of  our  Plantation  ;  but  as  the 
preservation  of  our  privileges  will  chiefly  depend, 
under  God,  upon  the  first  foundation  of  our  govern- 
ment, so  if  we  suffer  so  great  an  affront  as  we  find  is 
intended  towards  us,  by  the  proceedings  of  Mr.  Old- 
ham and  his  adherents,  in  our  first  beginnings,  we 
may  be  sure  they  will  take  heart  and  be  emboldened 
to  do  us  a  far  greater  injury  hereafter.  And  there- 
fore we  pray  you  and  the  Council  there  to  advise 
seriously  together  for  the  maintenance  of  our  privi- 
leges and  peaceable  government ;  which  if  it  may  be 
done  by  a  temperate  course,  we  much  desire  it, 
though  with  some  inconvenience,  so  as  our  govern- 
ment and  privileges  be  not  brought  in  contempt, 
wishing  rather  there  might  be  such  a  union  as  might 
draw  the  heathen  by  our  good  example  to  the  em- 
bracing of  Christ  and  his  Gospel,  than  that  offence 
should  be  given  to  the  heathen,  and  a  scandal  to  our 


'  By  the  Charter  it  was  provided,  within   the  precincts   and   parts   of 

that  "  all  officers  employed  by  the  New-England   aforesaid,    according 

Company  in  the  government  of  the  to  the  orders  and  instructions  of  the 

Plantation,  shall  have  full  and  abso-  Company,   not  being  repugnant   to 

lute  power  and  authority  to  correct,  the  laws  and  statutes  of  the  realm  of 

punish,  govern  and  rule  all  persons  England."    See  the  Charter  in  Haz- 

a8  shall  at  any  time  hereafter  inhabit  ard,  i.  239 ;  Hutchinson's  Coll.  p.  1. 


150  MASSACHUSETTS    BAY    TO    BE    OCCUPIED. 

CHAP,  religion,    through  our   disagreement    amongst   our- 

-- —  selves. 

1629.  -gyj.  j^  necessity  require  a  more  severe  course, 
17"  when  fair  means  will  not  prevail,  we  pray  you  to 
deal  as  in  your  discretions  you  shall  think  fittest  for 
the  general  good  and  safety  of  the  Plantation,  and 
preservation  of  our  privileges.^  And  because  we 
would  not  omit  to  do  anything  which  might  strengthen 
our  right,  we  would  have  you  (as  soon  as  these  ships, 
or  any  of  them,  arrive  with  you,  whereby  you  may 
have  men  to  do  it,)  send  forty  or  fifty  persons  to 
Mattachusetts  Bay,^  to  inhabit  there  ;  which  we  pray 
you  not  to  protract,  but  to  do  it  with  all  speed ;  and 
if  any  of  our  Company  in  particular  shall  desire  to 
settle  themselves  there,  or  to  send  servants  thittier, 
we  desire  all  accommodation  and  encouragement 
may  be  given  them  thereunto,  whereby  the  better  to 
strengthen  our  possession  there  against  all  or  any  that 
shall  intrude  upon  us,  which  we  would  not  have  you 
by  any  means  to  give  way  unto  f  with  this  caution, 
notwithstanding,  that  for  such  of  our  countrymen  as 
you  find  there  planted,"*  so  as  they  be  willing  to  live 
under  [our]  government,  you  endeavour  to  give  them 


*  These  instructions  seem  to  ap-  understood  only  the  territory  border- 
prove  and  justify  Eiidicott's  aitack  ing  on  Boston  harbour,  from  Nahant 
upon  Morton's  riotous  company  at  to  Point  Alderton.  Naumkeak  was 
Mount  Wollaston,  soon  after  his  not  included  in  it. 
arrival  in  the  preceding  year.  See  ''  The  planters  in  Massachusetts 
Hubbard's  N.  E.,  p.  104  ;  Morton's  15ay  at  this  time  were  William 
Memorial,  pp.  138,  141,  note,  where  Ijhickstone  at  Shawmut,  (Boston), 
the  chronology  is  set  right.  Thomas  Walford  at  Mishawum, 
2  Sec  note  '  on  page  4.  (Charlestown),  Samuel  Maverick 
^  All  this  shows  the  anxious  de-  at  Noddle's  Island,  (East  Boston), 
sire  and  settled  detennination  of  the  and  David  Thompson,  at  Thomp- 
Company  to  anticipate  Oldham,  and  son's  Island,  near  Dorchester.  How 
by  preoccupying  the  ground,  to  get  or  when  they  came  there,  is  not 
the  exclusive  possession  of  Massa-  known.  See  Johnson,  Hist.  N.  E., 
chusetts  Bay  ;  by  which  was  then  ch.  17. 


RALPH    SMITH,  THE    MINISTER. 


151 


1629. 

April 
17. 


all  fitting  and  due  accommodation  as  to  any  of  our-  chap. 
selves  ;  yea,  if  you  see  cause  for  it,  though  it  be  with  -— J^ 
more  than  ordinary  privileges  in  point  of  trade. 

Mr.  Ralph  Smith,^  a  minister,  hath  desired  passage 
in  our  ships  ;  which  was  granted  him  before  we 
understood  of  his  difference  in  judgment  in  some 
things  from  our  ministers.  But  his  provisions  for 
his  voyage  being  shipped  before  notice  was  taken 
thereof,  through  many  occasions  wherewith  those 
intrusted  with  this  business  have  been  employed,  and 
forasmuch  as  from  hence  it  is  feared  there  may  grow 
some  distraction  amongst  you  if  there  should  be  any 


'  We  learn  from  Hutchinson, 
who,  as  well  as  Hubbard  and  Prince, 
appears  to  have  had  the  leaf  now 
torn  out  of  the  Colony  Records,  con- 
taining the  proceedings  of  the  courts 
held  April  8  and  30,  1629,  that,  "of 
the  four  ministers  provided,  Ralph 
Smith  was  required  to  give  under 
his  hand,  that  he  would  not  exercise 
his  ministry  within  the  limits  of  the 
patent  without  the  express  leave  of 
the  Governor  upon  the  spot."  He 
seems  to  have  been  a  Separatist  in 
England,  which  occasioned  the  cau- 
tion used  with  him.  He  remained 
but  a  very  short  time  at  Salem,  for 
in  the  end  of  June,  says  Gov.  Brad- 
ford, "  he  goes  with  his  family  to 
some  straggling  people  at  Nan- 
tasket ;  where  some  Plymouth  peo- 
ple, putting  in  with  a  boat,  find  him 
in  a  poor  house  that  would  not  keep 
him  dry.  He  desires  them  to  carry 
him  to  Plymouth  ;  and  seeing  him 
to  be  a  grave  man ,  and  understand- 
ing he  had  been  a  minister,  they 
bring  him  hither  ;  where  we  kindly 
entertain  him,  send  for  hLs  goods 
and  servants,  and  desire  him  to  ex- 
ercise his  gifts  among  us ;  after- 
wards choose  him  into  the  minis- 
try, wherein  he  remains  for  sundry 
years."'  Hubbard  speaks  disparag- 
ingly of  his  abilities,  saying  that  the 
Plymouth  people,  in  calling  him  to 


exercise  the  office  of  a  pastor  among 
them,  "  were  more  induced  there- 
unto, possibly,  by  his  approving  the 
ligid  way  of  Separation  principles, 
than  any  fitness  for  the  office  he  un- 
dertook ;  being  much  overmatched 
by  him  that  he  was  joined  with  in 
the  presbytery,  [Elder  Brewster,] 
both  in  the  point  of  discretion  to  rule 
and  aptness  to  teach ;  so  as,  through 
many  infinnities,  being  found  una- 
ble to  discharge  the  trust  committed 
to  him  with  any  competent  satisfac- 
tion, he  was  forced  soon  after  to  lay 
it  down."  Gov.  Winthrop  says, 
that  in  Dec.  1635,  Smith  "  gave 
over  his  place,"  that  John  Norton 
might  have  it.  This,  perhaps,  was 
only  temporarily  ;  for  Morton  savs, 
that  in  Dec.  1638,  Gorton  was  sum- 
moned to  the  court  at  Plymouth  to 
answer  a  complaint  made  against 
him  by  Smith.  He  was  residing 
there  as  late  as  1641,  and  Sept.  27, 
16-12,  sold  his  house  and  land  to  the 
Rev.  John  Reyner,  his  successor  in 
the  church.  In  Nov.  1615,  he  was 
called  to  preach  at  Manchester,  on- 
Cape  Ann,  and  he  died  at  Boston 
]March  1,  1662.  See  Hutchinson's 
Mass.  i.  10  ;  Winthrop,  i.  91,  175,  ii. 
253  ;  Hubbard,  pp.  97,  121  ;  Prince, 
pp.  257,  261,  262  ;  Morton's  Mem» 
p.  202  ;  INIass.  Hist.  Coll.  iv.  110  ;• 
Folt's  Salem,  i.  80.  ' 


152 


THOMAS  GRAVES,  THE  ENGINEER. 


CHAP,  siding,  though  we  have  a  very  good  opinion  of  his 

— —  honesty,  yet  we  shall  not,  [we]  hope,  offend  in  charity 

162  9.  to  fear  the  worst  that  may  grow  from  their  different 

^1^7^'  judgments.     We  have  therefore  thought  fit  to  give 

you  this  order,  that  unless  he  will  be  conformable  to 

our  government,  you  suffer  him  not  to  remain  within 

the  limits  of  our  grant. 

We  take  notice  that  you  desire  to  have  Frenchmen 
sent  you  that  might  be  experienced  in  making  of  salt 
and  planting  of  vines. ^  We  have  inquired  diligently 
for  such,  but  cannot  meet  with  any  of  that  nation. 
Nevertheless,  God  hath  not  left  us  altogether  unpro- 
vided of  a  man  able  to  undertake  that  work ;  for  that 
we  have  entertained  Mr.  Thomas   Graves,^  a  man 


'  It  appears  somewhat  singular 
that  they  should  have  seriously 
thought  of  planting  vineyards  in 
this  cold  region.  "Vine-planters" 
are  mentioned  on  page  42  among 
what  the  Company  were  to  "  pro- 
vide to  send  for  New-England."  In 
1634,  the  yearly  rent  of  Governor's 
Isla;d,  in  Boston  harbour,  was  a 
hogs'iead  of  wine.  That  island  had 
been  granted  to  Gov.  Winthrop 
April  3,  IG32,  on  condition  that  he 
should  plant  a  vineyard  or  orchard 
there.     See  Col.  Rec.  i.  85,  141. 

*  Of  Thomas  Graves,  the  engi- 
neer, very  little  is  known,  except 
what  is  contained  in  the  preceding 
Records  of  the  Company  and  in  this 
letter.  Very  soon  after  his  arrival 
at  Salem,  at  the  end  of  June,  he  was 
sent  by  Gov.  Endicott,  with  the 
Rev.  Francis  Bright,  Abraham  Pal- 
mer, and  others,  to  take  possession 
of  Masisachusetts  Bay,  in  conformity 
with  the  instructions  sent  over  by 
the  Company.  He  pitched  on  Mish- 
awum,  (now  Charlestown,)  where 
he  found  Walford,  the  smith,  .and 
perhaps  the  Spragues,  (unless,  as  is 
more  probable,  tliey  were  of  the  100 
who  came  with  him.)  The  Charles- 
town  records  inform  us  that  he  mo- 


delled and  laid  out  the  plan  of  that 
town,  with  streets  about  the  hill, 
measured  out  two  acre  lots  for  the 
inhabitants,  and  "  built  the  great 
house  for  such  of  the  Company  as 
are  shortly  to  come  over,  which 
afterwards  became  the  meeting- 
house." At  the  end  of  the  third 
edition  of  Higginson's  New-Eng- 
land's Plantation,  printed  in  London 
in  1630,  is  "  a  letter  sent  from  New- 
England  by  Master  Graves,  Engi- 
neer, now  there  resident."  In 
White  Kennett's  American  Library, 
or  Catalogue  of  Books  and  Papers 
which  he  gave  in  1713  to  the  Soci- 
ety for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gos- 
pel in  Foreign  Parts,  page  237,  is 
the  following  entry  :  "A  copy  of  a 
Letter  from  an  Engineer  sent  out  to 
New-England,  written  to  a  friend  in 
England,  A.  D.  1629,  giving  an  ac- 
count of  his  landing  with  a  small 
company  at  Salem,  and  thence  going 
and  making  a  settlement  at  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,  and  laying  the  found- 
ation of  a  town,  to  which  the  Gov- 
ernor gave  the  name  of  Charles- 
town  ;  with  a  pleasing  description  of 
the  exceeding  pleasantness  and  fruit- 
fulness  of  the  country,  and  of  the 
civility  of  the  natives.     In  one  sheet 


GRAVES's    QUALIFICATIONS.  153 

commended  to  us  as  well  for  his  honesty,  as  skill  in  chap. 

V. 

many  things  very  useful.     First,  he  professeth  great 

skill  in  the  making  of  salt,  both  in  ponds  and  pans,  ^^^^• 
as  also  to  find  out  salt  springs  or  mines.  vSecondly,  yj] 
he  is  well  seen  in  mines  and  minerals,  especially 
about  iron  ore  and  iron  works.  Thirdly,  he  is  able 
to  make  any  sort  of  fortifications.  Fourthly,  he  is 
well  able  to  survey  and  set  forth  lands.  He  hath 
been  a  traveller  in  divers  foreign  parts  to  gain  his 
experience.  Therefore  we  pray  you  take  his  advice 
touching  the  premises,  and  where  you  intend  to  sit 
down  in,  to  fortify  and  build  a  town,  that  it  may  be 
qualified  for  good  air  and  water,  according  to  your 
first  instructions,^  and  may  have  as  much  natural 
help  as  may  be  ;  whereby  it  may  with  the  less  labor 
and  cost  be  made  fit  to  resist  an  enemy.  So  soon  as 
you  have  made  trial  of  his  sufficiency,  write  us  your 
opinion  how  long  you  conceive  it  will  be  fit  for  us  to 
continue  him  in  our  service  ;   for  that  he  is  tied"  to 


MS.  Ex  dono  Rev.  Alexandri  with  another  Thomas  Graves,  who 
Young,  S.  T.  B."  There  can  be  was  mate  of  the  Talbot  on  her 
no  doubt  that  the  author  of  this  let-  first  voyage,  and  who,  according  to 
ter  was  Graves.  This  circumstance,  Winthrop,  writing  under  June  3, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  identity  of  the  1635,  "  had  come  every  year  for 
donor's  name  with  my  own,  prompt-  these  seven  years."  Besides,  the 
ed  me  to  apply,  four  years  ago,  to  rear-admiral  of  that  name  was  born 
Gov.  Everett,  then  our  Minister  at  in  1605,  and  in  1629  was  only  twen- 
the  Court  of  Great  Britain,  to  pro-  ty-four  years  old,  whilst  the  engineer 
cure  for  rae  a  copy  of  it.  He  very  at  this  lime  had  a  family  of  five 
obligingly  applied  in  my  behalf  to  children.  It  is  probable  that  he  soon 
the  Secretary  of  the  Society,  but  no  returned  to  England,  as  no  notice  of 
document  of  the  kind  was  to  be  him  occurs  in  the  subsequent  history 
found  in  their  archives.  Search  was  of  the  Colony.  See  page  54;  Win- 
then  made,  at  his  instance,  in  the  throp's  Hist.  i.  161,  and  Frothing- 
Library  at  Lambeth,  but  with  like  ham's  excellent  History  of  Charles- 
ill   success.     It  is  to  be  feared  that  town,  p.  26. 

the  manuscript  is  irrecoverably  lost.  '  These  first  instnictions  to  Endi- 
—  Graves  was  admitted  a  freeman  cott  are  not  preserved.     See  Hutch- 
May  18,  1631,   and  Prince,  p.  321,  inson's  Mass.  i.  9. 
appends  to  his   name  this  remark,  '  Graves's  contract  is  printed  on 
"  after,  a  rear-admiral  in  England."  pp.  56-59. 
I  think  he  confounds  the  engineer 


154  THE    ALLOTMENT    OF    LANDS. 

CHAP,  serve  us  one  whole  year  absolutely,  and  two  years 

—  more  if  we  should  give  him  order  to  stay  there  so  long. 

^  ^^^  So  we  hope  to  receive  your  advice  time  enough  to  give 
17"  him  order  to  stay  out  full  three  years,  or  to  come 
home  at  the  end  of  one  year.  His  salary  costs  this 
Company  a  great  sum  of  money  ;  besides  which,  if 
he  remain  with  us,  the  transporting  of  his  wife,  and 
building  him  a  house,  will  be  very  chargeable ;  which 
we  pray  you  take  into  your  consideration,  that  so  we 
may  continue  or  surcease  this  charge,  as  occasion 
shall  require. 

In  our  next  we  intend  to  send  you  a  particular  of 
such  as  are  to  have  land  allotted  and  set  out  unto 
them,  that  so  you  may  appoint  unto  each  man  an 
equal  proportion  by  lot,  according  to  what  is  to  be 
allowed  in  the  first  dividend  ;^  touching  which  we 
shall  then  give  you  more  large  instructions.  Mean- 
while, for  such  as  have  sent  over  servants  and  cattle 
in  these  ships, ^  and  for  such  as  have  more  to  come 
in  two  other  ships, ^  which  we  hope  will  be  ready  to 
set  sail  within  ten  days,  our  desire  is,  they  should 
either  be  accommodated  at  Nahumkeeke,  or  in  the 
Mattachusetts  Bay,  or  in  both  places,  if  they  desire 
it,  with  all  the  conveniency  that  may  be ;  and  for 
such  grounds  as  shall  be  allotted  unto  them,  that  the 
same  be  conveyed  unto  them,  if  they  desire  it,  at 
any  time  within  one  year  after  their  entering  upon  it, 
and  to  be  accounted  as  part  of  their  first  dividend. 
But  if  they  shall  dislike  it  at  any  time  before  a  gene- 
ral distribution  be  made  by  lot  to  all  the  adventurers, 


*  See  pp.  69,  73-77.  ^  They  despatched  three  others, 

*  The   George,   the   Talbot,  and     the    Mayflower,   the    Four   Sisters, 
the  Lion's  Whelp.  and  the  Pilgrim. 


PRIVATE    ADVENTURERS.  155 

then  they  may  have  liberty  to  do  it,  and  take  in  lieu  chap. 
thereof  as  by  lot  shall  fall  out  amongst  other  private  — - 
adventurers.  1629. 

We  recommend  unto  you  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  ^p"^ 
and  Mr.  Isaac  Johnson,  who  send  over  servants  and 
cattle  in  these  ships,  desiring  you  will  take  care  for 
their  present  accommodation,  as  aforesaid  ;  and  as 
for  them,  so  we  may  not  omit  to  pray  you  likewise 
to  give  all  good  accommodation  to  our  present  Gov- 
ernor, Mr.  Matthew  Cradock,  who,  with  some  parti- 
cular brethren  of  our  Company,  have  deeply  engaged 
themselves  in  their  private  adventures  in  these  ships, 
and  those  to  come ;  and  as  we  hold  these  men  that  thus 
deeply  adventure  in  their  private,  to  be,  under  God, 
special  instruments  for  the  advancing  and  strength- 
ening of  our  Plantation,  which  is  done  by  them  with- 
out any  charge  to  the  Company's  general  stock, 
wherein  notwithstanding  they  are  as  deep  or  deeper 
engaged  than  any  other,  so  being  contented  to  be 
debarred  from  all  private  trading  in  furs  for  three 
years,  we  do  hold  it  very  requisite  in  all  other  their 
desires  to  give  them  all  accommodation  and  further- 
ance that  reasonably  may  be  propounded  by  them, 
or  any  for  them  ;  their  good  beginnings  in  the  in- 
fancy of  our  Plantation  worthily  deserving  of  us  all 
favor  and  furtherance. 

We  have  caused  a  common  seal  ^  to  be  made,  which 
we  send  you  by  Mr.  Sharpe. 

'  Tliis  seal,  mentioned  on  page  42,  appropriateness  of  this  device  is  lost 
is  stamped  on  the  back  of  this  vol-  in  the  present  seal  of  the  Common- 
ume.  In  the  centre  stands  an  In-  wealth,  where  the  Indian  is  retained 
dian,  raising  the  Macedonian  cry,  but  an  arm  brandishing  a  sword  is 
(Acts,  xvi.  9,)  "  Come  over  and  placed  over  his  head,  and  for  the  old 
help  us;"  in  allusion  to  the  main  motto  is  substituted  Algernon  Sid- 
end  of  the  Plantation,  the  conversion  ney's  well-known  line,  "  Ense  petit 
of  the  natives  to  Christianity.     The  placidam  sub  libertate  quietem." 


156         ARTICLES  SENT  OYER  FOR  THE  COLONY. 

If  you  want  any  swine,  we  have  agreed  with  those 
of  New  Plymouth  that  they  deliver  you  six  sows 
16  29.  ^^-j^i^  pjg^  foj.  which  they  are  to  be  allowed  £9  in  ac- 
17"  count  of  what  they  owe  unto  Mr.  Goffe,  our  Deputy. 
And  for  goats,  we  have  bought  forty-two  for  the 
general  and  particular  men's  accounts,  which  shall 
be  sent  you  by  these  and  the  next  ships,  or  at  least- 
wise so  many  of  them  as  they  can  conveniently  carry. 

We  have  followed  your  advice,  and  sent  most  of 
our  guns  snaphance,^  bastard  musket  bore  ;  and  we 
have  also  sent  store  of  powder  and  shot,  grain  for 
seed,  both  wheat,  barley,  and  rye,  in  the  chaff,  &.c.^ 
As  for  fruit-stones  and  kernels,  the  time  of  the  year 
fits  not  to  send  them  now  ;  so  w^e  purpose  to  do  it 
per  our  next.  Tame  turkeys  shall  be  now  sent  you, 
if  may  be;  if  not,  per  other  ships.  We  are  disap- 
pointed of  the  provisions  ordered  to  have  been 
sent  you  for  yourself  and  Mrs.  Endicott  ;  but,  God 
W'illing,  they  shall  come  by  the  next. 

We  have  made  our  servants'  apparel  of  cloth  and 
leather  ;  which  leather  is  not  of  oil  skins, ^  for  we 
found  them  over  dear.  Yet  if  this  prove  not  profita- 
ble, upon  your  second  advice  w^e  will  send  you  oil 
skins. 

For  such  of  our  nation  as  sell  munition,  guns,  or 
other  furniture,  to  arm  the  Indians  against  us,  or 
teach  them  the  use  of  arms,  we  would  have  you  to 
apprehend  them  and  send  them  prisoners  for  Eng- 
land,^ where  they  will  not  escape  severe  punishment, 

'  See  note  ^  on  page  14.  Wollaston,  and  sent  liim  home.  See 

-  See  page  42.  note  '  on  page  48,  and   Mass.  Hist. 

^  See  pages  40  and  42.  ColL    iii.  62;    Morton's  Memorial, 

■*  It  was  on  this  ground  that,  he-  13G-M1 ;  Prince's  Annals,  pp.  250 

fore  Endicott's  arrival,  Standish  had  to  252. 

alieady  arrested  Morton,  at  Mount 


SAMUEL  SHARPE,  MASTER-GUNNER.  157 

being   expressly    against    the    Proclamation.^      You  chap. 
have  had  former  caution  given  you  to  take  heed  of  — -^ 
being  too   secure  in  trusting  the  Indians,^  which  we  1629. 
again  commend  to  your  care  ;   and  that  you  may  be   *  n" 
the  better  able   to  resist  both  foreign  enemies  and 
the  natives,  if  either  should  assail  you,  we  pray  you 
let  all  such  as  live  under  our  government,  both  our 
servants  and   other   planters   and  their  servants,  be 
exercised    in    the    use    of  arms,    and   certain  times 
appointed  to   muster   them  ;   in  which  business  Mr. 
Sharpe"  and  Mr.  Graves  will  be   assistant  to  you. 
Mr.  Sharpe  is  by  us  entertained'*  to  be  master-gunner 
of  our  ordnance  ;   in  which   service  he  is  to  employ 
so  much  of  his  time  as  the  charge  of  that  office  doth 
require,  and  in  the  rest  he  is  to  follow  other  employ- 
ments of  our  Governor's  and  others,  for  whose  em- 
ployment he  is  particularly  sent  over. 

Enclosed  you  shall  receive  a  factory^  of  such  pro- 
vision of  victual  and  other  necessaries  as  we  have 
sent  for  the  general  account,  to  which  we  refer  you, 
nothing  doubting  but  you  will  be  a  provident  stew- 
ard to  husband  our  provisions  to  the  best  advantage. 
We  also  send  you  the  particular  names  of  such  as 
are  entertained  for  the  Company's  service  ;  amongst 
which  we  hope  you  will  find  many  religious,  dis- 
creet, and  well-ordered  persons,  which  you  must  set 


'  See  pages  83  and  84.  low.     He  was  Cradock's  agent  in 

^  In  Cradock's  letter.     See  page  the  Colony.     He  remained  at    Sa- 

136.  lem,  where  he  was  chosen  a  ruling 

^  Samuel  Sharpe  was  chosen  an  elder  of  the  church.     He  was  never 

Assistant  of  the  Company  in  Eng-  afterwards  a  magistrate  ;  and   died 

land  April  30,  1629,  and  again  Oct.  in  1658.    See  pages  50,  59  and  121 ; 

20,  1629.       But  being  out  of   the  Prince,  p.  271. 

country,   and  not   able  to  take  the  *  See  the  agreement  with  Sharpe 

oath,    he   was    superseded    in    his  on  page  50. 

place,  Feb.  10,  1630,  by  Roger  Lud-  *  Inventory. 


158  DISCIPLINE    TO    BE    EXERCISED. 

CHAP,  over  the  rest,  dividing  them  into  families,  placing 
• — —  some  with  the  ministers,  and  others  under  such  as 
1629.  being  honest  men,  and  of  their  own  calling,  as  near 
17"  as  may  be,  may  have  care  to  see  them  well  educated 
in  their  general  callings  as  Christians,  and  particular 
according  to  their  several  trades,  or  fitness  in  dis- 
position to  learn  a  trade.  And  wiiereas,  amongst 
such  a  number,  notwithstanding  our  care  to  purge 
them,  there  may  still  remain  some  libertines,  we  de- 
sire you  to  be  careful  that  such,  if  any  be,  may  be 
forced,  by  inflicting  such  punishment  as  their  offences 
shall  deserve,  (which  is  to  be,  as  near  as  may  be, 
according  to  the  laws  of  this  kingdom,)  to  conform 
themselves  to  good  order  ;  with  whom,  after  admo- 
nition given,  if  they  amend  not,  we  pray  you  proceed 
without  partiality  to  punish  them,  as  the  nature  of 
their  fault  shall  deserve ;  and  the  like  course  you  are 
to  hold  both  with  planters  and  their  servants ;  for  all 
must  live  under  government  and  a  like  law.  And  to 
the  end  you  may  not  do  anything  contrary  to  law, 
nor  the  power  granted  us  by  his  Majesty's  letters 
patents,  we  have,  as  aforesaid,  sent  you  the  duplicate 
of  the  letters  patents  under  the  great  seal  of  Eng- 
land, ordering  and  requiring  you  and  the  rest  of  the 
Council  there,  not  to  do  anything,  either  in  inflicting 
punishment  on  malefactors,  or  otherwise,  contrary 
to  or  in  derogation  of  the  said  letters  patents  ;  but, 
if  occasion  require,  we  authorize  you  and  them  to 
proceed  according  to  the  power  you  have.  Never- 
theless, we  desire,  if  it  may  be,  that  errors  may  be 
reformed  with  lenity,  or  mild  correction  ;  and  if  any 
prove  incorrigible,  and  will  not  be  reclaimed  by 
gentle  correction,  ship  such  persons  home  by  the 


TREATMENT    OF    THE    INDIANS.  159 

Lion's  Whelp/  rather  than  keep  them  there  to  infect  chap. 
or  to  be  an  occasion  of  scandal  unto  others ;   we  be-  

1629 

ing  fully  persuaded  that  if  one  or  two  be  so  reship-  "  ' 
ped  back,  and  certificate  sent  home  of  their  misde-  17. 
meanour,  it  will  be  a  terror  to  the  rest,  and  a  means 
to  reduce  them  to  good  conformity.  And,  above  all, 
we  pray  you  be  careful  that  there  be  none  in  our 
precincts  permitted  to  do  any  injury,  in  the  least 
kind,  to  the  heathen  people  ;  and  if  any  offend  in 
that  way,  let  them  receive  due  correction.  And  we 
hold  it  fitting  you  publish  a  proclamation  to  that 
effect,  by  leaving  it  fixed  under  the  Company's  seal 
in  some  eminent  place,  for  all  to  take  notice  at  such 
time  as  both  the  heathen  themselves,  as  well  as  our 
people,  may  take  notice  of  it.  And  for  the  avoiding 
of  the  hurt  that  may  follow  through  our  much  famil- 
iarity with  the  Indians,  we  conceive  it  fit  that  they 
be  not  permitted  to  come  to  your  Plantation  but  at 
certain  times  and  places,  to  be  appointed  them.  If 
any  of  the  salvages  pretend  right  of  inheritance  to  all 
or  any  part  of  the  lands  granted  in  our  patent,  we 
pray  you  endeavour  to  purchase  their  title,  that  we 
may  avoid  the  least  scruple  of  intrusion.^ 


'  This  was  Endicott's  authority  satisfied   there   are    no    complaints 

and   apology  for  sending  home  the  against  this  Province  by  his  Majes- 

Brownes.  ty's  agents  for  Indian  affairs;  and 

^  These  instructions  were  literally  that  no  settlement  has  been  made  or 
and  scrupulously  observed  by  the  attempted  by  us  without  proper  au- 
first  settlers  of  Massachusetts  as  thority.  It  is  with  much  pleasure 
well  as  of  Plymouth.  They  made  we  remind  your  Excellency  and  in- 
conscience  of  paying  the  natives  to  form  the  world,  that  greater  care 
their  satisfaction  for  all  parts  of  the  was  taken  of  the  Indians  by  our 
territory  which  were  not  depopula-  pious  ancestors  during  the  old  char- 
ted, or  deserted,  and  left  without  a  ter,  and  by  this  government  under 
claimant.  The  government  of  the  the  new,  even  to  this  day,  than  was 
Province,  writing  home  to  Lord  ever  required  of  us  by  the  British 
Shelbume,  the  Secretary  for  the  government.  Nothing  has  been 
Colonies,  in  1767,  say,  "  We  are  omitted  by  the  province  since  1633 


160 


UxMTY    TO    BE    MAINTAINED. 


CHAP. 
V. 


1629. 

April 

17. 


We  have,  in  the  former  part  of  our  letter,  certified 
you  of  the  good  hopes  we  have  of  the  love  and 
unanimous  agreement  of  our  ministers,  they  having 
declared  themselves  to  us  to  be  of  one  judgment,  and 
to  be  fully  agreed  on  the  manner  how  to  exercise  their 
ministry ;  which  we  hope  will  be  by  them  accordingly 
performed.^  Yet,  because  it  is  often  found  that 
some  busy  persons,  led  more  by  their  will  than  any 
good  warrant  out  of  God's  word,  take  opportunities 
by  moving  needless  questions  to  stir  up  strife,  and  by 
that  means  to  beget  a  question,  and  bring  men  to 
declare  some  difference  in  judgment,  most  com- 
monly in  things  indifferent,  from  which  small  begin- 
nings great  mischiefs  have  followed,  we  pray  you 
and  the  rest  of  the  Council,  that  if  any  such  disputes 
shall  happen  amongst  you,  that  you  suppress  them, 
and  be  careful  to  maintain  peace  and  unity. ^ 

We  desire  you  to  take  notice  of  one  Lawrence 
Leech,^  whom  we  have  found  a  careful  and  painful 


to  this  day,  which  justice  or  human- 
ity required,  within  this  jurisdiction. 
We  glory  in  the  conduct  of  our  go- 
vernment, we  make  our  boast  of  it 
as  unexampled  ;  and  we  have  been 
free  and  spontaneous  on  our  part. 
We  assure  you,  that  being  animated 
by  the  same  principles  with  our 
ancestors,  we  shall  do  everything 
which  duty  to  the  King,  and  the 
maxims  of  good  policy,  of  justice 
and  equity  to  the  Indians  can  re- 
quire." The  fu'st  President  Adams 
being  asked  his  opinion  concerning 
the  treatment  of  the  Indians  in  New- 
England,  replied,  that  he  believed  it 
to  have  been  just.  "In  all  my 
practice  at  the  bar,"  said  he,  "I 
never  knew  a  contested  title  to  lands, 
but  what  was  traced  up  to  the  Indian 
title."  See  Chronicles  of  Plymouth, 
p.  2j{)  ;  Hutchinson's  Mass.  ii.  266  ; 


Holmes's  Annals,  i.  217,  ii.  150  ; 
Colony  Laws,  p.  132. 

^  "  By  this,"  says  Prince,  p.  258, 
"  it  appears  Mr.  Bright  was  a  Puri- 
tan ;  and  Mr.  Hubbard  seems  mista- 
ken in  supposing  him  a  Conformist ; 
unless  he  means  in  the  same  sense 
as  were  many  Puritans  in  those  days, 
who  by  particular  favor  omitted  the 
more  offensive  ceremonies  and  parts 
in  the  Common  Prayer,  while,  for 
the  unity  and  peace  of  the  Church, 
and  in  hopes  of  a  farther  reforma- 
tion, they  used  the  other."  See 
Hubbard,  pp.  112,  113,  and  John- 
son, Hist.  N.  E.,  ch.  9. 

^  This  would  serve  to  justify  En- 
dicott  in  his  summary  proceedings 
to  suppress  the  schismatical  and 
anarchical  conduct  of  the  Brownes. 

^  Lawrence  Leach  Avas  admitted 
a  freeman  May  18,  1631.     He  was 


SIX    SHIPWRIGHTS    SENT    OVER. 


161 


man,  and  we  doubt  not  but  he  will  continue  his  dili- 
gence ;  let  him  have  deserving  respect.  The  like 
we  say  of  Richard  Waterman/  whose  chief  employ- 
ment will  be  to  get  you  good  venison. 

We  have  sent  six  shipw^rights,  of  whom  Robert 
Molton^  is  chief.  These  men's  entertainment  is 
very  chargeable  to  us  ;  and  by  agreement  it  is  to  be 
borne  two-thirds  at  the  charge  of  the  general  Com- 
pany, and  the  other  third  is  to  be  borne  by  Mr.  Cra- 
dock,  our  Governor,  and  his  associates,  interested 
in  a  private  stock.  We  hope  you  w  ill  be  careful  to 
see  them  so  employed  as  may  countervail  the  charge, 
desiring  you  to  agree  with  Mr.  Sharpe  that  their 
labor  may  be  employed  two  thirds  for  the   general 


1629. 

April 
17. 


one  of  the  thirteen  men  (selectmen) 
of  Salem  ;  and  that  town,  in  1636, 
made  him  a  grant  of  100  acres  of 
land.  He  died  in  1(62,  aged  83, 
having  been  a  useful  and  respectable 
citizen.  See  Felt's  Annals  of  Sa- 
lem, pp.  215,  536,  (1st  ed.  1827.) 

^  Richard  ^Yaterman  lived  at  Sa- 
lem till  hewrs  required  by  the  Gen- 
eral Court,  March  12,  1638,  with 
rther  familists  or  antinomians,  to 
quit  the  Colony.  He  joined  Roger 
AVilliams  at  Providence,  in  October, 
and  became  one  of  the  founders  of 
that  city  and  of  the  Baptist  church 
there,  the  fir  t  of  the  name  in  Amer- 
ica. In  Jan.  1643,  with  Randall 
Holden  and  Samuel  Gorton,  he  pur- 
chased of  the  Indians  the  tract  of 
land  called  Shawomet,  (now  War- 
wick,) and  in  September  was  arrest- 
ed there,  with  the  rest  of  Gorton's 
company,  by  order  of  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts,  and  brought 
to  Boston.  After  his  discharge,  he 
returned  to  Providence.  He  was 
one  of  the  commissioners  for  that 
town  in  the  General  Assembly  of 
Rhode  Island  in  1650,  and  one  of  the 
town  magistrates  in  1655.  He  was 
living  as  late  as  1658.  See  Col. 
Rec.  i.  218  ;  Winthrop,  ii.  120, 137, 

11 


148  ;  Callender's  Hist.  Disc,  89,  97  ; 
Backus,  Hist,  of  the  Baptists  in  N. 
E.,  i.  92  ;  Hague,  Hist.  Uisc.  p.  32  ; 
Staples,  Annals  of  Providence,  pp. 
30,  33,  35,  76,  112,  121;  Mass. 
Hist.  Col  .  xix.  170,  182. 

^  Robert  ■Moulton  was  admitted  a 
freeman  ]\Iay  18,  1631.  He  was 
chosen  constable  of  Charlestown 
April  1,  163-1,  and  the  same  year 
was  a  deputy  from  that  town  in  the 
General  Court.  "  May  14,  1634, 
Mr.  Beecher,  ]Mr.  Pierce,  and  Ro- 
bert Moulton  are  desired  to  treat 
with  INIr.  Stevens  and  Mr.  Mayhew 
for  the  building  of  the  sea-fort  by 
the  great.''  After  this  he  removed 
to  Salem  ;  for  in  1637  he  was  one 
of  the  thirteen  men,  and  represented 
that  town  the  same  year  in  the  Gen- 
eral Court,  and  was  one  of  those 
that  were  ordered  to  be  disarmed  for 
signing  the  petition  or  remonstrance 
in  favor  of  Wheelwright.  Morton's 
Point,  in  Charlestown,  (or  INIolten's, 
as  it  was  formerly  called,  according 
to  Winthrop,  i.  154,)  was  probably 
named  after  him.  He  died  in  1655. 
See  page  94  ;  Col.  Rec.  MS.  i.  Ill, 
117;  Felt's  Salem,  105,527,  (ed. 
1827)  ;  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  129, 
215,248. 


162  THE    RETURN    CARGOES    OF    THE    SHIPS. 

CHAP.  Company,  and  one  third  for  Mr.  Cradock  and  his 
>— —  associates  ;  praying  you  to  accommodate  the  said 
1629.  Mr^  Cradock's  people  in  all  fitting  manner,  as  he 
^ff^^  doth  well  deserve. 

Such  cattle,  both  horses,  mares,  cows,  bulls  and 
goats,  as  are  shipped  by  Mr.  Cradock,  are  to  be 
divided  in  equal  halves  'twixt  him  and  the  Company; 
which  was  omitted  to  be  done  here,  for  avoiding 
partiality  ;   so  you  must  do  it  equally  there. 

We  pray  you  to  be  careful  to  make  us  what 
returns  you  possibly  may,  the  better  to  enable  us 
to  send  out  a  fresh  supply.  We  hope  you  have 
converted  the  commodities  you  carried  with  you 
for  truck,  into  beaver,  otter,  or  other  furs,  which 
we  pray  you  send  us  by  the  Talbot  ;  as  also  any 
other  commodities  you  have  provided  in  readiness 
against  the  ship's  coming  thither.  But  pray  do 
not  detain  her  any  long  time  to  cut  timber,  or  any 
other  gross  lading  ;  for  she  is  at  <£150  a  month 
charges,  which  will  soon  eat  out  more  than  the 
goods  she  should  stay  for  is  worth.  Wherefore, 
pray  make  what  expedition  you  can  to  unlade  her 
goods,  and  to  put  such  things  aboard  her  as  you 
have  ready,  and  send  her  hitherward  again  as  soon 
as  you  may. 

We  have  sent  five  weight  of  salt  in  the  Whelp, 
and  ten  weight  in  the  Talbot.  If  there  be  any 
shallops  to  be  had  to  fish  withal,  and  the  season  of 
the  year  fit,  pray  let  the  fishermen,  (of  which  we 
send  six  from  Dorchester,)  together  with  some  of 
the  ships'  company,  endeavour  to  take  fish,  and  let 
it  be  well  saved  with  the  said  salt,  and  packed  up  in 
hogsheads,  or  otherwise,  as  shall  be  thought  fittest, 


SATURDAY  AFTERNOON  TO  EE  KEPT.  163 

and  send   it  home  by  the  Talbot  or  Lion's  Whelp,  chap. 


V. 


Now,  forasmuch  as  the  Lion's  Whelp  belongeth  to 
the  Company,  you  may,  if  there  be  hope  to  do  good  ^^^^• 
by  it,  keep  her  there  some  time  after  the  Talbot ;  n. 
but  unless  it  be  to  very  good  purpose,  do  not  detain 
her,  but  let  her  come  home  in  company  of  the  Tal- 
bot. The  George  Bonaventure  is  to  land  her  pas- 
sengers, and  other  things  belonging  to  the  general 
Company  or  to  particular  men,  and  so  set  sail  for 
Newfoundland  ;  and  we  pray  you  let  it  be  your  care 
to  despatch  her  as  soon  as  may  be. 

William  Ryall  and  Thomas  Brude,  coopers  and 
cleavers  of  timber,  are  entertained  by  us  in  halves 
with  Mr.  Cradock,  our  Governor.  Pray  join  others 
that  can  assist  them  unto  them,  and  let  them  pro- 
vide us  some  staves,  and  other  timber  of  all  sorts,  to 
be  sent  us  by  the  Talbot,  Whelp,  or  the  other  two 
ships  that  come  after.  But  we  pray  you  consider 
the  charge  of  these  ships,  and  detain  them  not  for 
small  matters.  Rather  use  all  diligence  to  send 
them  away. 

If,  at  the  arrival  of  this  ship,  Mr,  Endicott  should 
be  departed  this  life,  (which  God  forbid,)  or  should 
happen  to  die  before  the  other  ships  arrive,  we  au- 
thorize you,  Mr.  Skelton,  and  Mr.  Samuel  Sharpe, 
to  take  care  of  our  affairs,  and  to  govern  the  people 
according  to  order,  until  further  order.  And  to  the 
end  the  Sabbath  may  be  celebrated  in  a  religious 
manner,  we  appoint  that  all  that  inhabit  the  Planta- 
tion, both  for  the  general  and  particular  employ- 
ments, may  surcease  their  labor  every  Saturday 
throughout  the  year  at  three  of  the  clock  in  the 
afternoon  ;   and  that  they  spend  the  rest  of  that  day 


164 


A  MINISTER  TO  BE  SENT  TO  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 


CHAP,  in  catechising  and  preparation  for  the  Sabbath,  as  the 

- — —  ministers  shall  direct.^ 

1629.      jf  ii  ghall  please  God  to  take  away  by  death  any 

"^^"^  of  the  thirteen  that  shall  be  chosen  and  appointed 
for  the  Council,  (of  which  yourself  or  your  successor 
is  to  be  one,)  in  such  case  the  then  being  Gov- 
ernor and  the  surviving  Council  shall  from  time  to 
time  make  choice  of  one  or  more  to  supply  the  place 
of  such  as  shall  be  wanting  ;  and  that  there  may  no 
difference  arise  about  the  appointing  of  one  to  be 
minister  with  those  you  send  to  inhabit  at  Mattachu- 
setts  Bay,  we  will  have  you,  in  case  the  ministers 
cannot  agree  amongst  themselves  who  shall  under- 
take that  place,  to  make  choice  of  one  of  the  three 
by  lot ;  and  on  whom  the  lot  shall  fall,  he  to  go  with 
his  family  to  perform  that  work." 

We  have  advised  you  of  the  sending  of  William 
Ryall  and  Thomas  Brude,   cleavers  of  timber.^     But 


*  This  serves  to  show  that  the 
custom,  once  universal  throughout 
New-England,  of  "keeping"  Sa- 
turday atternoon  and  evening,  was 
not  of  home  origin  or  invention,  but 
was  early  enjoined  and  introduced 
from  abroad.  The  practice  no  doubt 
originated  from  the  injunction  in  Le- 
viticus, xxiii.  32,  "  From  even  unto 
even  shall  ye  celebrate  your  sab- 
bath." The  Jewish  sabbath  (Satur- 
day,) began  at  six  o'clock  of  our 
Friday  evening,  and  the  preparation 
for  it  at  three  in  the  afternoon. 
There  is  an  allusion  to  this  in 
Matthew  xxvii.  62,  and  John  xix. 
42,  where  "  the  day  of  the  prepara- 
tion," and  "  the  Jews'  preparation 
day,"  are  spoken  of.  Mather  says 
that  John  Cotton  "  began  the  sab- 
bath the  evening  before  ;  for  which 
keeping  of  the  sabbath  from  evening 
to  evening  he  wrote  arguments  be- 
fore his  coming  to  New-England ; 
and  I  suppose  'twas  from  his  reason 


and  practise  that  the  Christians  of 
New-England  have  generally  done 
so."  Hutchinson  says  it  was  some 
time  before  this  custom  was  settled. 
Mr.  Hooker,  in  a  letter  written 
about  tlie  year  1640,  says,  "  The 
question  touching  the  beginning  of 
the  sabbath  is  now  on  foot  among 
us,  hath  once  been  spoken  to,  and 
we  are  to  give  in  our  arguments, 
each  to  the  other,  so  that  we  may 
ripen  our  thoughts  concerning  that 
truth,  and  if  the  Lord  will,  it  may 
more  fully  appear  ;"  and  in  another 
letter,  March,  1640,  "  Mr.  Huit 
hath  not  answered  our  arguments 
against  the  beginning  the  sabbath 
at  morning."  See  Mather's  Mag- 
nalia,  i.  253,  and  Hutchinson's 
Mass.  i.  428. 

-  Bright  went,  as  appears  from 
the  Charlestown  records.  He  had 
a  wife  and  two  children. 

^  See  page  150. 


LAMBERT    WILSON,  THE    SURGEON.  165 

indeed  the  said  Thomas  his  name  is  Brand,  and  not  chap. 
Norton  ;^  but  there  is  one  Norton,^  a  carpenter,  ^-^ 
whom  we  pray  you  respect  as  he  shall  deserve.  1629. 

There  is  one  Richard  Ewstead,  a  wheelwright,  n" 
who  was  commended  to  us  by  Mr.  Davenport  for  a 
very  able  man,  though  not  without  his  imperfections. 
We  pray  you  take  notice  of  him,  and  regard  him  as  he 
shall  well  deserve.  The  benefit  of  his  labor  is  to  be 
two-thirds  for  the  general  Company  and  one-third  for 
Mr.  Cradock,  our  Governor,  being  his  charges  is  to 
be  borne  according  to  that  proportion  ;  and  withal 
we  pray  you  take  care  that  their  charges  who  are  for 
partable  employments,  whether  in  halves  or  thirds, 
may  be  equally  defrayed  by  such  as  are  to  have 
benefit  of  their  labors,  according  to  each  party's  pro- 
portion. Their  several  agreements,  or  the  copies 
thereof,  shall  be  (if  God  permit)  sent  you  by  the 
next  ships. 

We  have  entertained  Lambert  Wilson,  chirurgeon, 
to  remain  with  you  in  the  service  of  the  Plantation  ; 
with  whom  we  are  agreed  that  he  shall  serve  this 
Company  and  the  other  planters  that  live  in  the 
Plantation,  for  three  years,  and  in  that  time  apply 
himself  to  cure  not  only  of  such  as  came  from  hence 
for  the  general  and  particular  accounts,  but  also  for 
the  Indians,  as  from  time  to  time  he  shall  be  directed 
by  yourself  or  your  successor  and  the  rest  of  the 
Council.  And  moreover  he  is  to  educate  and  in- 
struct in  his  art  one  or  more  youths,^  such   as  you 

^  Probably  an  error   of  the  pen  ^  We  have  here  the  embryo  of  a 

for  Brude.  Medical   School,    undoubtedly    the 

-  Probably  the  Mr.  Norton  with  first  contemplated  on  the  continent 

whom   the   congregation    at   Salem  of  America.     Whether  it  ever  went 

agreed  to  build  a  suitable  meeting-  into  operation,  or  how  it  succeeded, 

house  in  1634.     See  Felt's  Salem,  we  are  not  informed. 
p.  72,  (ed.  1827.) 


166  JOHN    IIIGGINSON,  OF    SALEM. 

CHAP,  and  the  said  Council  shall  appoint,  that  may  be  help- 
ful to  him,  and,  if  occasion  serve,  succeed  him  in  the 
Plantation  ;  which  youth  or  youths,  fit  to  learn  that 
profession,  let  be  placed  with  him  ;  of  which  Mr. 
Hugesson's  son,^  if  his  father  approve  thereof,  may 
be  one,  the  rather  because  he  hath  been  trained  up 
in  literature  ;  but  if  not  he,  then  such  other  as  you 
shall  judge  most  fittest,  &c. 

The  2\st  of  Aprils  in  Gravesend.^ 
21.  The  afore-written  is,  for  the  most  part,  the  copy^ 
of  our  General  Letter,  sent  you  together  w^ith  our 
patent  under  the  broad  seal,  and  the  Company's  seal 
in  silver,  by  Mr.  Samuel  Sharpe,  passenger  in  the 
George,  who,  we  think,  is  yet  riding  in  the  Hope  ;^ 
but,  by  means  of  stormy  weather,  the  Talbot  and 
Lion's  Whelp  are  yet  at  Blackwall.^  By  these  ships 
that  are  to  follow  we  intend  (God  w^illing,)  to  supply 
both  in  our  advice  and  in   our  provisions   what  is 


'  This  was  John,  the  eldest  son,  125,  ii.  176;  Trumbull 's  Connecti- 
at  this  time  nearly  thirteen  years  cut,  i.  379,  280,  296  ;  Kingsley's 
old,  having  been  born  Aug.  6,  1616.  Hist.  Disc.  p.  102. 
He  had  been  educated  at  the  gram-  "  Gravesend  is  on  the  right  bank 
mar  school  in  Leicester,  England,  of  the  Thames,  22  miles  below  Lon- 
After  his  father's  death  in  August,  don,  in  Kent.  All  vess-els  sailing 
1630,  he  accompanied  his  mother  to  from  the  port  of  London  were,  till 
Charlestown,  and  afterwards  to  recently,  obliged  to  clear  out  at 
New  Haven.  For  a  while  he  Gravesend.  Gov.  Cradock  had  pro- 
taught  a  school  at  Hartford,  and  bably  gone  down  there  to  take  leave 
having  studied  divinity,  became  a  and  put  his  letters  on  board, 
preacher  in  1637,  and  officiated  three  ^  This  identical  copy,  in  the  hand- 
or  four  years  as  a  chaplain  at  Say-  writing  of  Burgess,  the  Secretary  of 
brook  fort.  His  mother  died  in  the  Company,  is  preserved  in  excel- 
1610,  and  in  1611  he  removed  to  lent  order  at  the  end  of  the  first 
Guildford,  and  in  1660  succeeded  volume  of  Deeds  in  the  Registry  of 
his  father  in  the  church  at  Salem,  Suffolk  ;  and  it  is  from  that  we 
being   its  sixth  minister.     He  died  print. 

there  Dec.  9,  1708,  aged  92,  having  ^  A   reach  in   the  Thames,   just 

been  a  preacher  more   than  seventy  below  Gravesend. 

years.     See  Mather's  Magnalia,  i.  ^  lilackwall  is  only   four    miles 

10,    330;    Hutchinson's   Mass.    i.  from  St.  Paul's,  down  the  Thames. 


FAMILY    DISCIPLINE    TO    BE    MAINTAINED.  167 

wanting  now.     In  the  mean-while  we  pray  you  ac-  chap. 

commodate  business  with  your  true  endeavours  for 

the  general  good  in  the  best  and  discreetest  manner  1^29. 
that  you  may.  21. 

For  the  better  accommodation  of  businesses,  we 
have  divided  the  servants  belonging  to  the  Company 
into  several  families,  as  we  desire  and  intend  they 
should  live  together  ;  a  copy  whereof  we  send  you 
here  enclosed,  that  you  may  accordingly  appoint 
each  man  his  charge  and  duty.  Yet  it  is  not  our  in- 
tent to  tie  you  so  strictly  to  this  direction,  but  that 
in  your  discretion,  as  you  shall  see  cause  from  time 
to  time,  you  may  alter  or  displace  any  as  you  shall 
think  fit. 

Our  earnest  desire  is  that  you  take  special  care, 
in  settling  these  families,  that  the  chief  in  the  family, 
at  least  some  of  them,  be  grounded  in  religion  ; 
whereby  morning  and  evening  family  duties  may  be 
duly  performed,  and  a  watchful  eye  held  over  all  in 
each  family,  by  one  or  more  in  each  family  to  be 
appointed  thereto,  that  so  disorders  may  be  prevent- 
ed, and  ill  weeds  nipped  before  they  take  too  great 
a  head.  It  will  be  a  business  worthy  your  best  en- 
deavours to  look  unto  this  in  the  beginning,  and,  if 
need  be,  to  make  some  exemplary  to  all  the  rest ; 
otherwise  your  government  will  be  esteemed  as  a 
scarecrow.  Our  desire  is  to  use  lenity,  all  that  may 
be  ;  but,  in  case  of  necessity,  not  to  neglect  the 
other,  knowing  that  correction  is  ordained  for  the 
fool's  back.  And  as  we  intend  not  to  be  wanting  on 
our  parts  to  provide  all  things  needful  for  the  main- 
tenance and  sustenance  of  our  servants,  so  may  we 
justly,  by   the  laws  of  God   and  man,  require  obe- 


168  JOHN  AND  SAMUEL  BROWNE. 


CHAP,  dience  and  honest  carriage  from  them,  with  fitting 

labor  in  their  several  employments  ;  wherein  if  they 

^^^^-  shall  be  wanting,  and  much  more  if  refractory,  care 
2L^    must  be  taken  to  punish  the  obstinate  and  disobe- 
dient,^ being  as  necessary  as  food  and  raiment.    And 
we  heartily  pray  you,  that   all  be  kept  to  labor,  as 
the  only  means  to  reduce  them  to  civil,  yea  a  godly 
life,  and  to  keep  youth  from  falling  into  many  enor- 
mities, which  by  nature  we  are  all  too  much  inclined 
unto.     God,  who  alone  is  able  and  powerful,  enable 
you  to  this  great  work,  and  grant  that  our  chiefest  aim 
may  be  his  honor  and  glory.     And  thus  wishing  you 
all  happy  and  prosperous  success,  we  end  and  rest 
Your  assured  loving  friends, 
The  Governor  and  Deputy 

Of  the  New-England  Company 

For  a  Plantation  in  Mattachusetts  Bay. 

Through  many  businesses  we  had  almost  forgot- 
ten to  recommend  unto  you  two  brethren  of  our 
Company,  Mr.  John  and  Mr.  Samuel  Browne,  who, 
though  they  be  no  adventurers  in  the  general  stock, 
yet  are  they  men  we  do  much  respect,  being  fully 
persuaded  of  their  sincere  affections  to  the  good 
of  our  Plantation.  The  one,  Mr.  John  Browne,  is 
sworn  an  Assistant  here,  and  by  us  chosen  one  of  the 
Council  there  ;  a  man  experienced  in  the  laws  of 
our  kingdom,  and  such  an  one  as  we  are  persuaded 
will  worthily  deserve  your  favor  and  furtherance  ; 
which  we  desire  he  may  have,  and  that  in  the  first 
division  of  lands  there  may  be  allotted  to  either  of 
them  two  hundred  acres. 

^  Some  word,  such  as  order  or  discipline,  is  here  accidentally  omitted. 


JOHN    OLDHAM  S    GRANT. 


169 


I  find  Mr.  Oldham's^  grant  from  Mr.  Gorge  is  to  chap. 
him  and  John  Dorrell,  for  all  the  lands  within  Mat-  ^ — ^ 
tachusetts  Bay,  between  Charles  river  and  Abousett-  I629. 
river,  containing  in  length,  by  a  straight  line,   five  ^P^'ii 
miles  up  the  said  Charles  river,  into  the  main  land 
northwest  from  the  border  of  the  said  Bay,  including 
all  creeks  and  points  by  the  way,  and  three  miles  in 
length  from  the  mouth  of  the  foresaid  river  of  Abou- 
sett, up  into  the  main  land,  upon  a  straight  line  south- 
west, including  all  creeks  and  points,  and  all  the  land 
in  breadth  and  length  between  the  foresaid  rivers, 
with  all  prerogatives,  royal  mines  excepted.     The 
rent  reserved  is  twelve  pence  on  every  hundred  acres 
of  land  that  shall  be  used  ;   William  Blaxton,^  clerk, 


^  We  hear  nothing  more  of  Old- 
ham, after  his  unsuccessful  attempt 
to  negotiate  with  the  jVIassachusetts 
Company  and  to  get  his  claim  to 
territory  within  their  patent  allowed, 
till  May  18,  1631,  when  he  was  ad- 
mitted a  freeman  of  the  Colony.  Of 
course,  before  this  was  done,  he 
must  have  abandoned  his  pretensions 
and  made  terms  with  the  colonial 
government.  When  he  came  over, 
for  the  last  time,  is  uncertain, 
whether  in  the  vessel  he  was  at  this 
time  providing,  or  in  one  of  the 
Company's  three  ships  that  sailed 
in  June,  after  Higginson's  departure, 
or  in  one  of  Winthrop's  fleet.  He 
was  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Wa- 
tertown,  and  was  evidently  trusted 
and  respected  in  the  Colony.  We 
find  him  in  'Slav,  1632,  one  of  the 
two  deputies  sent  from  Watertown 
to  advise  with  the  Governor  and  As- 
sistants about  raising  a  public  stock ; 
and  he  was  also  one  of  the  three  re- 
presentatives of  that  town  in  the  first 
General  Court  of  Delegates,  held 
May  14,  1631.  He  was  a  fearless 
and  enterprising  trader  with  the  na- 
tives, and  his  murder  by  the  Indians 
of  Block   Island  in  July,  1636,  was 


the  immediate  cause  of  the  Pequot 
W'ar.  See  Wmthrop's  Hist.  i.  76, 
80,  129,  189-192,  ii.  362. 

^  Saugus  river,  in  Lynn.  See 
Lewis's  History  of  Lynn,  p.  21. 

^  William  Blackstone,  (or  Blax- 
ton,  as  it  was  spelt  by  his  son,  and 
by  Ed.  Johnson,  in  his  History  of 
New-England,)  the  first  European 
occupant  of  the  peninsula  on  which 
Boston  is  built,  was  a  clergyman,  a 
Puritan  and  Nonconfonnist,  and  was 
educated  at  Emanuel  College,  Cam- 
bridge, where  he  took  the  degree  of 
A.B.  in  1617,  and  of  A.M.  in  1621. 
He  was  one  of  the  first  settlers  in 
Massachusetts  Bay,  having  been  as- 
sessed in  June,  1628,  for  the  cam- 
paign against  ^Morton  of  JMount  Wol- 
laston.  Lechford,  who  was  here  in 
1637,  says  that  Blackstone  lived  at 
Boston  nine  or  ten  years.  Now,  as 
he  left  Boston  in  the  spring  of  1635, 
this  would  determine  his  residence 
here  as  early  as  1625  or  1626.  He 
may  have  been  one  of  the  company 
whom  Robert  Gorges  brought  over 
in  Sept.  1623,  and  one  of  "  the  un- 
dertakers "  to  whose  charge  and 
custody  he  left  his  plantation  at 
Wessagusset,  when  he  returned  to 


170 


WILLIAM  BLACKSTONE,  OF  BOSTON. 


CHAP. 
V. 


and  William  Jeffryes/  gentleman,  authorized  to  put 
John  Oldham  in  possession.     Having  a  sight  of  his 


1629. 

April 
21. 


England  in  1624.  It  certainly  ap- 
pears from  this  letter,  that  he  was 
at  this  time  acting  as  an  agent  of 
John  Gorges,  (who,  after  his  brother 
Robert's  death,  had  succeeded  to  his 
patent,)  and  was  empowered  by  him, 
in  conjunction  with  Jeffries,  to  put 
Oldham  in  possession  of  the  territory 
which  he  had  leased  him.  Accord- 
ing to  the  united  testimony  of  the 
Charlestown  Records,  Edward  John- 
son, and  Roger  Clap,  Blackstone, 
at  the  time  of  Winthrop's  arrival, 
"was  dwelling  alone  at  a  place 
called  by  the  Indians  Shawmut, 
where  he  only  bad  a  cottage, —  that 
plain  neck  called  Blackstone's  neck, 
—  on  a  point  of  land  called  Black- 
stone's  Point."  This  was  the  place 
afterwards  called  Barton's  Point, 
near  Craigie's  bridge,  and  opposite 
the  State's  Prison.  He  was  admit- 
ted a  freeman  May  18,  1631.  Ma- 
ther, i.  221,  and  after  him,  Hutchin- 
son, i.  21,  says,  that  Blackstone 
claimed  the  whole  peninsula,  on  the 
gi-ound  that  he  was  the  first  person 
that  had  slept  upon  it.  Such  a  claim 
could  not  be  allowed  by  the  gov- 
ernment of  Massachusetts,  since  by 
their  charter  the  whole  territory 
within  the  Bay  vested  in  them. 
Still  they  seem  to  have  treated  him 
generously ;  for  at  a  Court  held 
April  1,  1633,  it  was  "  agreed  that 
Mr.  Wm.  Blackstone  shall  have  fifty 
acres  of  ground  set  out  for  him  near 
to  his  house  in  Boston,  to  enjoy  fur- 
ever;"  which  must  have  been  at 
least  a  fourteenth  part  of  the  whole 
peninsula.  The  next  year,  163-1, 
he  sold  this  land  to  the  other  inhab- 
itants of  the  town  for  jC30,  reserv- 
ing for  himself  only  about  six  acres 
on  the  Point  where  he  had  built  his 
house.  To  pay  this  sum,  a  rate  of 
six  shillings  to  each  householder 
was  assessed  Nov.  10,  1634  ;  and 
Blackstone  probably  removed  the 
next  spring,  1635,  with  a  stock  of 
cows  wliich  he  had  purchased  with 
the  money  he  had  received.     Lech- 


ford  says  that  Blackstone  "  went 
from  Boston  because  he  would  not 
join  with  the  church  ;"  and  Cotton 
Mather  says,  that  "this  man  was, 
indeed,  of  a  particular  humour,  and 
he  would  never  join  himself  to  any 
of  our  churches,  giving  this  reason 
for  it,  '  I  came  from  England  be- 
cause I  did  not  like  the  lord-bish- 
ops ;  but  I  can't  join  with  you,  be- 
cause I  would  not  be  under  the  lord- 
brethren.'  "  There  is  no  ground, 
however,  for  the  intimation  throw^n 
out  by  certain  writers,  that  he  was 
driven  away  by  intolerance  or  harsh 
usage.  He  seems  to  have  been  a 
contemplative,  recluse  sort  of  per- 
son, and,  amidst  the  growing  popu- 
lation of  the  peninsula,  he  doubtless 
pined  for  the  seclusion  and  quiet 
which  he  had  enjoyed  when  he  was 
its  solitary,  imdisturbed  possessor. 
These  he  found  in  his  new  resi- 
dence, in  the  southern  part  of  the 
present  town  of  Cumberland,  in 
Rhode  Island,  about  thirty-five  miles 
to  the  southward  of  Boston,  and 
three  miles  above  the  village  of 
Pawtucket,  on  the  eastern  bank  of 
the  beautiful  river  that  now  bears 
his  name.  The  spot  he  selected 
was  then  vidthin  the  jurisdiction  of 
New-Plymouth,  the  government  of 
which,  in  1671,  granted  him  the 
land  on  which  he  had  settled,  being 
about  200  acres.  In  the  Records  of 
that  Colony,  under  1661,  his  place 
is  mentioned  as  that  "  where  one 
Blackstone  now  sojourneth."  The 
antiquarian  pilgrim  may  identify  it 
by  inquiring  for  the  Whipple  farm, 
within  a  few  rods  of  Whipple's 
bridge,  a  mile  and  a  half  above 
Valley  Falls,  on  the  west  side  of 
the  stage  road  from  Pawtucket  to 
Worcester.  Here  Blackstone  lived 
a  retired  and  quiet  life,  cultivating 
his  garden  and  orchard,  and  study- 
ing his  books,  of  which  he  had  186 
volumes,  among  them  three  bibles 
and  eleven  Latin  folios  and  quartos, 
which  he  probably  brought  with  him 


THOMAS    JEFFREY,  OF    IPSWICH. 


171 


grant,  this  I  found.     Though  I  hold  it  void  in  law,  chap 

yet  his  claim  being  to  this,  you  may,  in  your  discre ^ 

tion,  prevent  him  by  causing  some  to  take  possession  ^^^q 
of  the  chief  part  thereof.^ 


April 
21. 


from  Emanuel  College.  These 
books  were  all  destroyed  with  his 
house,  in  Philip's  War,  which  broke 
out  only  a  few  weeks  after  his  death. 
On  July  4th,  16-59,  he  was  married 
at  Boston,  by  Gov.  Endicott,  to  Sa- 
rah Stevenson,  widow  of  John  Ste- 
venson, by  whom  he  had  one  son, 
John,  who  survived  him,  and  was  a 
minor  at  the  time  of  his  father's 
death.  The  old  mnn  died  in  May, 
1675,  and  was  buried  on  his  own 
farm  on  the  28th  of  the  month.  He 
could  not  have  been  far  from  eight}^ 
years  of  age,  as  he  was  probably 
about  21  when  he  graduated  at  Cam- 
bridge in  1617.  His  well,  with  the 
stoning  almost  entire,  is  still  to  be 
seen,  and  also  the  cellar  of  his  house, 
and  his  lonely  grave  by  the  side  of 
Study  Hill.  A  few  years  since  it 
was  marked  by  a  large  round  white 
stone.  But  this  has  disappeared, 
and  two  rude  stones  now  stand  at 
the  head  and  foot  of  the  grave. 
How  long  will  it  be  before  some  one 
of  the  princely  merchants  of  the 
renowned  peninsula  which  he  first 
tenanted,  will  erect  a  worthy  monu- 
ment over  his  grave,  or  build  a  cen- 
otaph to  liis  memory  in  the  metropo- 
lis of  New-England  ?  See  Savage's 
Winthrop,  i.'"44,  ii.  362;  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.  iii.  63,  xii.  70,  86,  xix. 
174,  XX.  170,  xxiii.  97,  399,  xxviii. 
247;  Hazard,  i.  391  ;  Holmes's  An- 
nals, i.  377  ;  Prince's  Annals,  pp. 
221-224  ;  Snow's  Boston,  pp.  31, 
50  ;  Frothingham's  Charlestown, 
p.  45  :  Daggett's  Attleborough,  pp. 
24-34  :  Bliss's  Rehoboth,  pp.  2-14. 
'  William  Jetirey,  or  Jeffries,  was 
an  old  planter  in  New-England  be- 
fore the  arrival  of  Endicott ;  for  we 


find  his  name  among  those  who,  in 
June,  1628,  were  assessed  for  the 
expenses  of  arresting  Morton  and 
sending  him  home.  He  was  at  this 
time  probably  residing  at  Cape  Ann 
or  Ipswich.  It  is  not  known  when 
or  how  he  came  over.  He  was 
among  the  first  admitted  to  be  free- 
men, May  18,  1631.  Jeffrey's 
Creek,  now  INIanchester,  and  Jef- 
frej'''s  Neck,  in  Ipswich,  were  un- 
doubtedly called  nfter  him.  In  1638, 
with  Nicholas  Eastcn,  he  removed 
to  the  vicinity  of  the  Rhode  Island 
Plantations ;  and  in  1642  his  name 
appears  among  the  proprietors  of 
Weymouth.  He  appears  to  have 
claimed  the  neck  of  land  in  Ipswich, 
called  by  his  name,  on  the  ground 
of  a  purchase  from  the  natives  ;  for 
we  find  b}^  an  act  of  the  General 
Court,  passed  in  1666,  that  500 
acres  of  land  were  granted  to  him 
"  on  the  south  side  of  our  patent, 
[probably  at  Weymouth,]  to  be  a 
final  issue  of  all  claims  by  virtue  of 
any  grant  heretofore  made  by  any 
Indians  whatsoever."  By  a  letter 
which  Morton,  of  Merry  Mount, 
wrote  to  him  in  IMay,  1634,  it  would 
seem  that  Jeffrey  was  formerly  one 
of  his  friends,  for  he  addresses  him 
with  the  familiar  title,  "  My  very 
good  gossip."  See  Winthrop's 
Hist.  i".  44,  138,  ii.  361  ;  Hutchin- 
son's Mass.  i.  31  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
iii.  63  ;  Felt's  Hist,  of  Ipswich,  p. 
9  ;  Leach's  Hist,  of  Manchester, 
MS.  p.  4,  hi  tlie  Archives  of  the 
Mass.  Hist.  Society. 

^  This  last  p.aragraph,  in  the  sin- 
gular number,  was  probably  written 
by  Gov.  Cradock. 


1629, 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    company's    SECOND    GENERAL    LETTER    OF    IN- 
STRUCTIONS TO   ENDICOTT  AND  HIS  COUNCIL. 

London,  28th  May,  1629. 
After  our  hearty  commendations — our  last  unto 
you  was  of  the  17th  and  2 1st  April,  sent  by  the  last 
ships,  viz.  the  George- Bonaventure,  Thomas  Cox, 
28.  master,  who  set  sail  from  the  Isle  of  Wight  the  4th 
of  this  month,  and  seconded^  by  the  Talbot,  Thomas 
Beecher,  master,  and  the  Lion's  Whelp,  John  Gibbs, 
master,  who  set  sail  also  from  the  Isle  of  Wight 
about  the  11th  of  this  month  ;  which  letter  being 
large,  and  consisting  of  many  particulars,  hath  been 
confirmed  here  ;  and  herewith  you  shall  receive  a 
copy^  thereof,  desiring  you  to  take  especial  care  of 
the  performance  and  putting  in  execution  of  all  things 
material  therein  mentioned,  and  particularly,  amongst 
others,  that  point  concerning  publication  to  be  made 
that  no  wrong  or  injury  be  offered  by  any  of  our  peo- 

'  The  duplicate  of  tlieir  first  letter  that  is  preserved  in  the  first  book  of 

was  sent  by  the  Talbot.     See  page  the  Suffolk  Registry  of  Deeds,  and 

IGO.  from  which  we  have  printed  the  let- 

*  It  is  this  second  copy,  probably,  ter.     See  page  166. 


JOHN    ENDICOTT    APPOINTED    GOVERNOR.  173 

pie   to  the  natives  there/     To  which  purpose  we  chap. 

desire  you,  the  Governor,  to  advise  with  the  Coun 

cil  in  penning  of  an  effectual  edict,  upon  penalty  to  1^2 9. 
be  inflicted  upon  such  as  shall  transgress  the  same  ;     28. 
which  being  done,  our  desire  is,  the  same  may  be 
published,  to  the  end  that   all  men  may  take  notice 
thereof,  as  also  that  you  send  a  copy  thereof  unto  us 
by  the  next  return  of  the  ships. 

We  have,  sithence  our  last,  and  according  as  we 
then  advised,  at  a  full  and  ample  Courf^  assembled, 
elected  and  established  you.  Captain  John  Endicott, 
to  the  place  of  present  Governor  in  our  Plantation 
there,  as  also  some  others  to  be  of  the  Council  with 
you,  as  more  particularly  you  will  perceive  by  an 
Act  of  Court ^  herewith  sent,  confirmed  by  us  at  a 
General  Court,'*  and  sealed  with  our  common  seal  ; 
to  which  Act  we  refer  you,  desiring  you  all  punctu- 
ally to  observe  the  same,  and  that  the  Oaths ^  we 
herewith  send  you,  (which  have  been  here  penned 
by  learned  counsel,  to  be  administered  to  each  of 
you  in  your  several  places,)  may  be  administered  in 
such  manner  and  form  as  in  and  by  our  said  Order  is 
particularly  expressed  ;  and  that  yourselves  do  frame 
such  other  Oaths,  as  in  your  wisdoms  you  shall  think 
fit  to  be  administered  to  your  Secretary  or  other 
officers,  according  to  their  several  places  respec- 
tively. 

^  See  page  159.  authorized   by    the    Charter,   were 

2  This  Court  was  held  April  30,  called   Great  and  General   Courts. 

1629.     See  page  66.  Hence   the    oriofin  of  the   title   by 

^  This  Act  of  Court,  establishing  which  the  Legislature  of  Massachu- 

the  government  in  New-England,  is  setts  is  still  designated, 
preserved,  and  is  printed  at  the  end         ^  These  oaths  are  preserved,  and 

of  this  letter.     See  also  pp.  68,  78.  are  printed  in  a  subsequent  part  of 

*  The  four  quarterly  meetings,  or  this  volume.     See  also  page  69. 
general  assemblies  of  the  Company, 


1629, 


174  ALLOTMENT    OF    LAND    TO    THE    ADVENTURERS. 

We  have  further  taken  into  our  consideration  the 
fitness  and  conveniency,  or  rather  a  necessity,  of 
making  a  dividend  of  land,  and  allotting  a  proportion 
5^8.  to  each  adventurer,  and  otherwise  ;  and  to  this  pur- 
pose have  made  and  confirmed  an  Act,^  and  sealed 
the  same  with  our  common  seal,  to  the  particulars 
whereof  we  refer  you,  desiring  you  with  all  conve- 
nient expedition  to  put  the  same  in  execution  ;  and 
for  your  better  direction  in  the  allotment,  we  have 
herewith  sent  you  (as  by  our  last  we  promised)  a 
list  of  all  the  several  adventurers,  and  of  the  sum  by 
each  of  them  adventured,"  desiring  that  upon  the 
dividend  each  adventurer  may  have  his  allotment  of 
land  ;  as  also  such  others  as  are  no  adventurers, 
coming  in  person  at  their  own  charge,^  and  the  ser- 
vants of  adventurers  sent  over  to  reside  upon  the 
Plantation,  may  have  such  a  proportion  of  land  allot- 
ted unto  and  for  them  as  by  our  said  Order  is  ap- 
pointed. And  whereas  divers  of  the  Company  are 
desirous  to  have  the  lands  lie  together,'*  we  holding 
it  fit  herein  to  give  them  all  accommodation,  as  tend- 


'  This  Act  will  also  be   found  at  John  Endicott,  Daniel  Ilodsen,  Ed- 

the  end  of  this  letter.     See  also  pp.  ward  Ford,  Daniel  Ballard,  Thomas 

74-78.  Hewson,  Andrew  Arnold,  Richard 

^  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  Bushord,  Richard  Young,  George 
names  of  the  adventurers  in  May,  Way,  Richard  Bellingham,  Job 
1628.  The  first  two  subscribed  Bradshaw,  Joseph  Bradshaw,  Henry 
j£^  100  each,  and  the  rest  £50  each:  Durley,  Thomas  Hutchins,  Charles 
—  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Knt.,  Whichcoyt,  George  Foxcroft,  Wil- 
Isaac  Johnson,  Esq.,  Mr.  Samuel  liam  Crowther,  Nathaniel  Mans- 
Aldersey,  John  Venn,  Hugh  Peter,  trey.  Several  of  these  names  have 
John  Humfrey,  Thomas  Stevens,  not  occurred  in  the  Company's  Re- 
George  Harwood,  John  Glover,  cords,  and  of  these  two  we  know 
Matthew  Cradock,  Simon  Whet-  came  over,  Richard  Bellingham  and 
combe,  Francis  Webb,  Increase  Abraham  Palmer.  See  Felt's  Sa- 
Nowell,  Mr.  A.  C,    Richard  Tuff-  lem,  i.  509. 

neale,    Richard  Perry,   Joseph  Of-  ^  The  Brownes  were  of  this  class, 

field,   John  White,   Joseph  Caron,  See  pages  61  and  168. 

Thomas    Adams,    Richard    Davis,  •*  See  page  69. 
Abraham  Palmer,    William  Darby, 


THE  \ a:\ies  and  contracts  of  the  colonists.       175 

ing  to  the  furtherance  of  the  Plantation,  do  pray  you  chap. 

to  give  way  thereunto  for  such  as  shall  desire  the ■ 

same,  whether  it  be  before  a  dividend  be  made  ac-  1629. 
cording  to  our  direction,  or  at  the  time  of  the  allot-    ^sJ 
ment  to  observe  the  same  course. 

You  shall  also  receive  herewith  the  copies  of  all 
the  several  agreements  made  with  the  servants  and 
others  sent  over  in  the  three  last  ships  for  account 
of  the  Company,  together  with  their  several  names, 
for  your  better  direction  in  employing  them  in  their 
several  places  according  to  those  agreements  ;  as 
also  the  names  of  the  servants  of  such  particular 
members  of  the  Company  as  went  over  in  the  said 
ships  ;  desiring  you  that  a  due  register  be  taken  and 
kept,  from  time  to  time,  of  all  the  persons  formerly 
sent  over,  or  that  shall  hereafter  come  to  the  Planta- 
tion, both  of  the  names,  and  quality,  and  age  of  each 
particular  person,  and  for  or  by  whom  they  are  sent 
over.^ 

We  send  you  also  herewith  a  particular  of  all  the 
goods  and  cattle  sent  in  those  forenamed  ships,  as 
also  of  what  goods,  cattle,  or  other  provisions  we 
now  send  upon~  these  three  ships,  viz.  the  May- 
flower,^ of  Yarmouth,  William  Peirse  master,  the 
Four  Sisters,  of  London,  Roger  Harman  master,  the 
Pilgrim,  of  London,  William  Wollridge  master  ; 
amongst  which  we  have  remembered  you,  the  Gov- 
ernor there,  with  certain  necessaries  promised  by 
our  last  ;^  and  if  in  aught  Ave  have  been  now  wanting, 


'  The  agreements,  lists  of  names  vessel  that  brought  the  Pilgrim  Fa- 

and  registers,  mentioned  in  this  pa-  thers   to   Phnnouth   in   1620.     See 

ragraph,  are  not  preserved.  Chronicles  oi'Phinouth,  pp.  99, 108, 

^  Upon  used  for  in,  as  on  p.  176.  and  Savage's  AVinthrop,  i.  1. 

^  The  Mayflower  is  the  renowned  *  See  page  156. 


176  THE    INDIANS'    LANDS    TO    BE    PURCHASED. 

CHAP,  we  shall,  upon  notice  from  you,  see  the  same  sup- 

—  plied  by  our  next.^ 

1629.      Whereas  in  our  last  we  advised  you  to  make  com- 

^g^^  position  with  such  of  the  salvages  as  did  pretend  any 
title  or  lay  claim  to  any  of  the  land  within  the  terri- 
tories granted  to  us  by  his  Majesty's  charter,  we 
pray  you  now  be  careful  to  discover  and  find  out  all 
such  pretenders,  and  by  advice  of  the  Council  there 
to  make  such  reasonable  composition  wdth  them  as 
may  free  us  and  yourselves  from  any  scruple  of 
intrusion  ;~  and  to  this  purpose,  if  it  might  be  con- 
veniently done,  to  compound  and  conclude  with  them 
all,  or  as  many  as  you  can,  at  one  time,  not  doubting 
but  by  your  discreet  ordering  of  this  business,  the 
natives  will  be  willing  to  treat  and  compound  with 
you  upon  very  easy  conditions. 

We  pray  you,  as  soon  as  these  ships  are  discharg- 
ed, to  cause  a  particular  to  be  taken  and  sent  us  at 
their  return  for  England,  of  the  names  of  all  such 
persons  as  come  upon  them  to  remain  in  the  country ; 
as  also  a  note  of  the  cattle  and  all  manner  of  goods, 
of  what  kind  soever,  landed  out  of  them,  with  the 
several  marks,  and  names  of  the  owners  thereof. 
The  like  whereof  we  desire  to  receive  from  you  of  the 
former  three  ships,  viz.  the  George,  Talbot,  and 
Lion's  Whelp  ;  to  the  end  we  may  compare  the  same 
with  the  invoices  here,  and  receive  freight,  if  any  be 
omitted. 

The  charge  we  are  at  in  sending  over  servants  for 
the  Company  is  very  great,  the  recompense  whereof 

^  We  have  no  other  C4eneral  Let-  the  Colony  the  next  sprinT-  rendered 

tcr  from  the   Ccmpany  ;  and  proba-  further  instructions  unnecessary, 
bly  none  was  written.    The  transfer         ^  See  page  159. 
of  the  Charter  and   Government  to 


FAMILY  REGISTERS  TO  BE  KEPT.  177 

(under  God)   depends  upon  their   labor  and  endeav-  chap. 

ours  ;   and  therefore  our  desire  is  that  you  appoint  a 

careful  and  diligent  overseer  to  each  family,  who  is  1629. 
to  see  each  person  employed  in  the  business  he  or  gs^ 
they  are  appointed  for.  And  to  the  end  both  your- 
selves there  and  we  here  may  from  time  to  time  have 
notice  how  they  employ  their  time,  we  have  sent  you 
divers  paper  books,  which  we  pray  you  to  distribute 
to  the  said  overseers,  who  are  to  keep  a  perfect  re- 
gister of  the  daily  work  done  by  each  person  in  each 
family  ;  a  copy  whereof  we  pray  you  send  unto  us 
once  every  half  year,  or  as  often  as  conveniently  you 
may.  But  if  you  conceive  that  the  said  register  may 
be  too  much  to  write  particularly  every  day,  we  de- 
sire that  a  summary  may  be  taken  thereof,  at  the 
least  every  week,  registered  in  the  book  kept  for 
that  family,  and  at  each  week's  end  the  same  to  be 
examined  and  subscribed  by  two,  three,  or  four  such 
discreet  persons  as  you  shall  think  fit  to  appoint  for 
that  purpose. 

And  for  the  better  governing  and  ordering  of  our 
people,  especially  such  as  shall  be  negligent  and 
remiss  in  performance  of  their  duties,  or  otherwise 
exorbitant,  our  desire  is  that  a  house  of  correction^ 
be  erected  and  set  up,  both  for  the  punishment  of 
such  offenders,  and  to  deter  others  by  their  example 
from  such  irregular  courses. 

Richard  Claydon,^  a  wheelwright,  recommended 
unto  us  by  Dr.  Wells  to  be  both  a  good  and  painful 
workman,  and  of  an  orderly  life  and  conversation, 


'  Thus  early  was  this  useful  and  ^  In  his  contract,  on  page  61,  he 

necessary  institution  contemplated,  is  called  a  carpenter,  and  is  to  in- 

if  not  established,  in  the  Colony.  struct  in  the  trade  of  a  ploughwright. 
12 


178 


RICHARD    INGERSOLL,  OF    BEDFORDSHIRE. 


CHAP,  our  desire  is,  that  upon  all  occasions  he  may  have 

your  furtherance  and  good  accommodation,  as  you 

^^^^-  shall  find  him  by  his  endeavours  to  deserve;    to 
28^    whom,  as  to  all   others   of  fitness  and  judgment,  let 
some  of  our  servants  be  committed,  to  be  instructed 
by  him  or  them  in  their  several  arts,  &c. 

There  is  also  one  Richard  Haward  and  Richard 
Inkersall,^  both  Bedfordshire  men,  hired  for  the 
Company  with  their  families,  who  we  pray  you  may 
be  well  accommodated,  not  doubting  but  they  will 
well  and  orderly  demean  themselves. 

Our  Governor,  Mr.  Cradock,  hath  entertained 
two  gardeners,  one  of  which  he  is  content  the  Com- 
pany shall  have  use  of,  if  need  be  ;  and  we  de- 
sire that  Barnaby  Claydon,^  a  wheelwright,  may 
serve    Mr.  Sharpe  for  our  said  Governor  here,    or 


•  Richard  Ingersoll  remained  at 
Salem,  where  he  received  from  the 
town,  April  6,  1635,  two  acres  for  a 
house  lot,  in  1636  eighty  acres  more, 
and  Dec.  23,  1639,  twenty  acres  of 
meadow  in  the  great  meadow.  — 
"  The  16th  of  11th  mo.  1636,  it  is 
agreed  tliat  Richard  Inkersell  shall 
henceforward  have  one  penny  a  time 
for  every  person  he  doth  ferry  over 
the  north  ferry,  during  the  town's 
pleasure."  He  died  in  1644,  leav- 
ing a  widow,  Ann,  and  three  sons, 
George,  John,  and  Nathaniel,  and 
four  daughters.  It  appears  from  his 
will,  which  was  witnessed  and  pro- 
bably written  by  Gov.  Endicott,  and 
from  the  inventory  of  his  estate  at- 
tached to  it,  that,  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  he  was  a  substantial  farmer, 
owning  two  houses,  203  acres  of 
land,  and  a  large  number  of  cattle. 
His  son  Nathaniel  was  chosen  dea- 
con of  the  church  at  Salem  Village, 
(Danvers,)  Nov.  24,  1689,  and  at 
the  same  time  was  lieutenant,  and 
inn-holder,  and  took  an  active  part 


in  the  witchcraft  delusion  in  1692. 
His  great  grandson,  Nathaniel,  mar- 
ried Bethiah  Gardner  in  1737,  and 
had  nine  children,  one  of  whom, 
Mary,  married  Habakkuk  Bowditch, 
and  was  the  mother  of  the  late  Dr. 
Bowditch,  the  eminent  mathemati- 
cian, the  author  of  the  Practical 
Navigator,  and  the  world-renowned 
commentator  on  La  Place.  What 
a  contrast  between  the  sphere  and 
the  influence  of  the  two  extreme 
links  in  this  long  genealogical  chain 
—  between  the  humble  ferryman 
who  transported  the  first  settlers  of 
Naumkeak  over  North  River,  and 
the  great  pilot  who  by  means  of  his 
invaluable  book  steers  the  ships  of  a 
nation  round  the  globe  !  —  Numer- 
ous descendants  of  Richard  Ingersoll 
are  living  in  Salem,  and  also  in 
Gloucester,  and  all  the  children  of 
Dr.  Bowditch  bear  the  honorable 
surname  of  the  ancient  ferryman. 
Records  of  the  Bowditch  family,  MS. 
'^  Brother  of  Richard.    See  p.  61. 


THE  PLANTERS  FROM  DORSET  AND  SOMERSET.      179 

some  other  person  in  lieu  of  him  that  may  give  him  chap. 
content.  

Some  things  we  are  desired  by  Mr.  Whyte,^  the  i^^g. 
minister,  to  recommend  unto  your  care,  viz.  that  you  Qsf 
would  show  all  lawful  favor  and  respect  unto  the 
planters  that  came  over  in  the  Lion's  Whelp  out 
of  the  counties  of  Dorset  and  Somerset  ;  that  you 
would  appoint  unto  William  Dodge,^  a  skilful  and 
painful  husbandman,  the  charge  of  a  team  of  horses  ; 
to  appoint  Hugh  Tilly  and  William  Edes  for  servants 
to  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  ;  to  give  approbation  and 
furtherance  to  Francis  Webb^  in  setting  up  his  saw- 
mill ;  and  to  take  notice  that  all  other  persons  sent 
over  by  Mr.  Whyte  are  servants  to  the  Company, 
whatsoever  he  hath  written  to  the  contrary,  this  be- 
ing now  his  own  desire. 

The  charge  of  these  three  ships  now  sent,  though 
every  man  that  hath  any  private  adventure  in 
them  is  to  pay  for  his  particular,  yet  the  hazard 
of  profit  and  loss  by  the  freighting  of  them  all,  and 
men's  wages  and  victual,  with  victual  for  the  pas- 
sengers, is  to  be  borne  one  half  by  the  Company's 
general  stock,  and  one  half  by  the  Governor  and  his 
partners  their  private  stock  ;  so  is  also  the  fishing 
to  be  returned  by  them,  as  the  salt  sent  in  them  is. 

'  See  notes  on  pages  16  and  26.  and  killed  two  Indians.     See  Hub- 

*  "William  Dodge  lived  at  Salem,  bard's  Indian  Wars,  p.  59  ;  Stone's 

on  Bass  liver,  or  Cape  Ann  side  ;  Hist,  of  Beverly,  p.  15 ;  and  Farm- 

and  when  that  part  of  tlie  territory  er's  Gen.  Register. 
was  incorporated  as  Beverly,  he  was         '  Francis  Webb  was  one  of  the 

chosen,  Nov.  23,  1668,  one  of  the  first  adventurers,  and   a  member  of  the 

selectmen  of  the  new  town,  and  was  Company.     He  subscribed  jC50  to 

one  of  the   founders  of  the   church  the  joint  stock  in  May,   1628,  and 

there  in  1667.     It  was  probably  his  his  name  occurs  at  six  of  the  courts 

son,  William  Dodge,  jr.,  who   was  in  the  preceding  Records.     Felt,  i. 

out  in  King  Philip's  War,  and  Jan.  171, errs  inputting  his  name  among 

21,  1676,  saved  the  life  of  his  friend  the  colonists.      See  pp.  69  and  174. 


180  TOOLS    AND    MATERIALS    FOR    SHIP-BUILDING. 

CHAP.  Wherefore  we  pray  you,  when  your  ships   are  dis- 

chaged,  if  any  surplus   shall  be  in  victuals  that  they 

■  can  spare,  as  also  of  other  provisions,  that  was  pro- 
28.  vided  for  the  passengers'  accommodation,  let  the  same 
be  equally  divided,  one  half  to  the  Governor  there 
for  the  Company,  the  other  half  to  Mr.  Samuel 
Sharpe  for  the  use  of  Mr.  Cradock,  our  Governor, 
and  his  partners.  All  provisions  for  the  fishing  at 
sea  is  here  equally  borne  in  halves.  So  are  all  the 
provisions  for  shipping  of  all  the  cattle  in  these  three 
ships  ;  and  accordingly  we  desire  the  deals  and  cask 
may  be  divided  there. 

The  provisions  for  building  of  ships,  as  pitch,  tar, 
rosin,  oakum,  old  ropes  for  oakum,  cordage  and  sail- 
cloth, in  all  these  ships,  with  nine  firkins  and  five 
half-barrels  of  nails  in  the  Four  Sisters,  are  two- 
thirds  for  the  Company  in  general,  and  one-third  for 
the  Governor,  Mr.  Cradock,  and  his  partners  ;  as  is 
also  the  charge  of  one  George  Farr,^  now  sent  over 
to  the  six  shipwrights,  formerly  sent.  Our  desire  is, 
a  storehouse  may  be  made,  apt  for  the  provisions  of 
the  shipwrights  and  their  tools,  whereof  Robert 
Moulton^  to  have  the  chief  charge,  and  an  inventory 
to  be  sent  us  of  all  the  tools,  the  new  by  themselves 
and  old  by  themselves,  that  are  sent  over  for  the  use 
of  the  said  shipwrights,  or  any  of  them,  in  these  and 
the  former  ships  ;  in  like  manner  of  all  provisions 
any  way  concerning  shipping  ;  to  the  end  we  may 
here  examine  and  find  that  the  Company  may  be 
duly  charged   with    their    two-thirds   parts   of    the 

*  George  Farr  was  a  farmer  at  Elizabeth,  who  was  buried  March 

Lynn  in  1630,  was  admitted  a  free-  II,  1687.     See  Lewis's  History  of 

man  May  6,  1635,  and  died  in  1661,  j^ynn,  p.  27. 

leaving  eight  children,  and  a  widow,  -  See  pages  94  and  161. 


FISHING-VESSELS    TO    BE    BUILT    ON    SHARES.  181 

charge,  and  no  more,  and  the  Governor  likewise  and  chap. 
his  partners  with  one-third  part,  and  no  more  ;  and  -^— 
our    desire    is,   that    these  men  be   kept    at   work  i^^o. 

Mav 

together,  adding  to  their  help  such  of  the  Company's  28. 
servants  as  you  shall  find  needful,  and  proportionably 
one  half  as  many  of  Mr.  Cradock's,  which  course  we 
hold  most  equal  ;  and  that  accordingly  as  any  ves- 
sels be  built,  first  that  both  parties  may  be  accom- 
modated for  the  present  occasion  ;  but  so  soon  as 
three  shallops  shall  be  finished,  two  of  them  to  be 
set  out  for  the  Company,  by  lot,  or  as  you  shall  agree 
there  to  make  an  equal  division,  and  one  for  our 
Governor  and  his  partners  ;  with  whose  agent,  Mr. 
Sharpe,  if  you  shall  think  fit  to  agree  upon  equal 
terms,  either  in  thirds  or  halves,  to  fish  together, 
when  you  shall  have  vessels  fitting,  or  for  setting  any 
other  design  forward  that  may  conduce  to  the  good 
of  all  parties,  the  charge  to  be  borne  indifferently  by 
each  party  proportionably,  we  leave  to  your  care 
and  good  discretions,  desiring  and  heartily  praying 
that  love  and  unity  may  be  continued  without  any 
heart-burning.  And  as  our  Governor^  hath  engaged 
himself  beyond  all  expectation  in  this  business,  not 
only  in  his  particular,  but  by  great  sums  disbursed 
for  the  general,  to  supply  the  wants  thereof,  so  our 
desire  is,  that  you  endeavour  to  give  all  furtherance 
and  friendly  accommodation  to  his  agents  and  ser- 
vants there,  not  doubting  but  you  shall  find  them 
likewise  ready  to  accommodate  the  Company  in  w^hat 
they  may,  the  Company  standing  in  need  of  their 
help. 

'  Matthew  Cradock.     See  note  ^  on  page  137. 


182       THE  CATTLE  SENT  OVER  FOR  THE  COLONY. 

The  cattle^  now  and  formerly  sent  have  been  all 
provided  by  the  Governor,  excepting  three  mares 
^^^^  that  came  out  of  Leicestershire  ;  but  as  well  those, 
28.  as  all  the  rest,  are  agreed  upon  to  be  shipped,  the 
one  half  at  the  charge  and  upon  the  adventure  of  the 
general  Company,  the  other  half  for  the  Governor 
and  his  partners.  And  because  all  occasions  shall 
be  avoided  of  just  exceptions  in  their  division,  it  is 
a2:reed  the  division  shall  be  made  after  the  arrival 
there ;  that  so  whatsoever  it  shall  please  God  to  send 
thither  in  safety,  a  division  may  be  then  made  there- 
of by  lot,  or  in  such  equal  manner  as  you,  the  Gov- 
ernor there,  and  Mr.  Sharpe,  shall  hold  to  be  in- 
different. And  in  case  Mr.  Samuel  Sharpe  should 
be  sick  or  absent,  the  Governor's  desire  is,  that 
Henry  Haughton^  supply  his  place  herein,  and  in 
other  his  occasions  there. 

And  as  in  our  former,^  so  now  again  we  especially 
desire  you  to  take  care  that  no  tobacco  be  planted 
by  any  of  the  new  planters  under  your  government, 
unless  it  be  some  small  quantity  for  mere  necessity, 
and  for  physic,  for  preservation  of  their  healths  ; 
and  that  the  same  be  taken  privately  by  ancient  men, 
and  none  other  ;  and  to  make  a  general  restraint 
thereof,  as  much  as  in  you  is,  by  persuading  the  old 
planters  to  employ  themselves  in  other  business,  ac- 
cording to  our  example,  and  not  to  permit  that  any 
tobacco  be  laden  there  upon  our  ships.'* 

*  The  George  had  on  board,  when  and  died  in  the  winter  of  1629-30, 

she  sailed,  thirty  cows,  twelve  mares  leaving   one    child.       See   Prince's 

and    some  goats;  and   tliirty  cows  Annals,  pp.  263,  271  ;  Hutchinson's 

and  ten  mares  were  expected  by  the  Coll.  p.  51. 

ships  tliat  were  now  sent,  ^  See  page  146. 

^  Henry  Houghton  was  the  first  "  See  jjages  136  and  146.  To- 
ruling  elder  of  the  church  in  Salem,  bacco  derives  its  name  not  from  the 


TOBACCO  NOT  TO  BE  PLANTED. 


183 


Since  the  above  written,  we  have,   upon  further  chap. 


consideration,  resolved  that  the  charge  of  the  six 
fishermen  sent  over  in  the  Lion's  Whelp,  and  three  ^ 
more  now  sent  by  our  Governor,  should  be  borne, 
two-thirds  by  the  general  Company  and  one-third 
by  Mr.  Cradock  and  partners  ;  the  like  for  salt  and 
other  necessaries  for  fishing.  In  consideration  where- 
of, and  for  that  they  will  have  a  like  interest  in  the 
shallops,  our  desire  is,  that  the  benefit  of  their  labor, 


1629. 

May 

28. 


island  of  Tobajro,  nor  from  Tabaco, 
a  province  of  Yucatan,  but  from  the 
forked  tube  through  which  the  na- 
tives of  Hayti  inhaled  its  fumes  into 
their  nostrils.  It  was  sent  from 
America  into  Spain  and  Portugal  by 
Hernandez  de  Toledo  in  the  year 
1559.  Jean  Nicot,  ambassador  from 
France  to  the  court  of  Lisbon,  in 
1660,  transmitted  the  seeds  of  the 
plant  to  his  sovereign,  Catharine  de 
Medici ;  and  hence  it  derived  the 
popular  title  of  the  Qucen^s  Herb, 
and  the  Ambassador'' s  Herb,  and  its 
botanical  name  of  Nirotiana.  On  its 
first  introduction  into  Europe,  nu- 
merous and  extraordinary  medicinal 
virtues  were  ascribed  to  it,  as  may 
be  seen  in  Monardes  and  Frampton. 
It  appears  to  have  been  brought  into 
England  by  Ralph  Lane  and  his 
companions  on  their  return  from 
Virginia  in  1586,  and  to  have  be- 
come fashionable  there  among  the 
young  gallants,  and  even  the  ladies 
of  the  court,  by  the  example  of  its 
use  set  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh. 
King  James,  however,  on  his  acces- 
sion to  the  throne,  blew  his  "  Coun- 
terblast to  Tobacco,"  and  in  1604 
issued  a  commission  to  restrain  the 
consumption  of  it,  by  laying  a  duty 
on  it  of  8s.  Sd.  a  pound,  and  prohib- 
iting its  use  by  "  persons  of  mean 
and  base  condition,"  and  confining 
it  to  "  the  better  sort."  In  1620 
he  issued  another  Proclamation,  in 
which,  after  declaring  his  "  dislike 
of  the  use  of  tobacco,  being  a  weed 
of  no  necessary  use,"   he   forbade 


the  planting  of  it  in  England,  and 
the  importation  of  it,  except  by  per- 
sons licensed  for  the  purpose,  and 
then  only  fiom  Virginia  and  the 
Sommer  Islands,  —  a  Proclamation 
which  was  renewed  by  Charles  I. 
in  1625,  and  followed  by  another  in 
1634,  in  which  he  assumed  the  sole 
preemption  of  it,  and  appointed  a 
commission  to  manage  the  monop- 
oly. The  planting  of  tobacco  in 
England  is  still  prohibited  by  law, 
and  the  import  duty  is  about  1200 
per  cent.  —  In  1638,  it  was  ordered 
by  the  General  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts, that  "  no  man  shall  take  any 
tobacco  within  ten  poles  of  any 
house,  or  near  any  barn,  corn,  or 
hay-cock,  as  may  occasion  the  firing 
thereof,  nor  shall  take  any  tobacco 
in  any  inn,  except  in  a  private  room 
there,  so  as  neither  the  master  of 
the  said  house,  nor  any  other  guest 
there,  shall  take  offence  thereat." 
See  Oviedo,  Sommario  della  Natu- 
rale  et  Generale  Historia  dell'  In- 
die Occidentali,  lib.  v.  cap.  2,  in 
Ramusio,  iii.  113;  Frampton,  loy- 
full  Newes  out  of  the  New-found 
Wo:lde,  fol.  34-45;  Bigelow's  Me- 
dical Botanv,  ii.  171-199  ;  Raleigh's 
Works,  i."  73-77,  (Oxford,  1829)  ; 
Rymer's  Foedera,  xvi.  601,  xvii. 
190,  233,  621,  633,  668,  xviii.  19  ; 
Mass.  Colony  Laws,  p.  146,  (ed. 
1672.)  p.  194,  (ed.  1814.) 

'  Two  of  these  were  subsequently 
dismissed  by  the  Governor,  and  did 
not  come  over  ;  as  will  be  seen  here- 
after. 


1629, 


184  IMPLEMENTS    FOR    FISHING    SENT    OVER. 

CHAP,  both  in  fishing  and  otherwise,  (the  trade  of  beaver 
excepted,  in  which,  if  you  use  any  of  these  fishermen 
as  seamen,  you  must  recompense  their  labors  by 
28.  other  men  to  supply  their  place,)  be  equally  divided, 
two-thirds  for  the  use  of  the  general  Company,  and 
one-third  for  our  Governor,  Mr.  Cradock,  and  part- 
ners, proportionably.  And  for  such  others  as  are  to 
be  assisting  to  these  men  in  their  fishing,  you  are  to 
appoint  two-thirds  of  them  to  be  of  the  general  Com- 
pany's servants,  and  one-third  of  the  servants  of  Mr. 
Cradock  and  his  partners  accordingly. 

The  charge  of  the  freight  of  these  three  ships, 
their  men,  victuals,  &c.,  will  stand  us  in  about 
.£2400  ;  and  their  freight  outward  will  nothing  near 
countervail  that  charge.  Wherefore  we  pray  you 
to  ease  it  what  you  may  by  sending  us  returns  in  fish 
or  other  lading  ;  and  w^e  desire  you  to  give  them  all 
expedition,  for  otherwise  their  monthly  pay,  being 
about  <£400  per  month  for  these  three  ships,  will 
soon  swallow  up  the  gains  we  shall  make  of  anything 
they  may  bring  home  from  thence. 

We  have  now  sent  by  these  three  ships  twenty- 
nine  weight  of  salt,  viz.  eleven  weight  in  the  May- 
flower, fifteen  in  the  Four  Sisters,  and  three  weight 
in  the  Pilgrim,  together  with  lines,  hooks,  knives, 
boots,  and  barrels,  necessary  for  fishing  ;  desiring 
our  men  may  be  employed  either  in  harbour  or  upon 
the  Bank^  to  make  use  thereof  for  lading  our  ships  ; 
wherein  we  desire  you  to  confer  and  advise  with  Mr. 
Peirce,  who  hath  formerly  fished  there.     And  if  you 


'  Of  Newfoundland,  which,  very     ite  place  of  resort  for  the  fishermen 
eatly  after  the  discovery  of  the  coast     of  Europe, 
of  North  America,  became  a  favor- 


SHIP-BUILDING    IN    THE    COLONY 


185 


May 
28. 


send  the  ships  to  fish  at  the  Bank,  and  expect  them  chap. 

not  to  return  again  to  the  Plantation,  that  then  you 

send  our  bark,^  that  is  already  built  in  the  country,  ^^^^• 
to  bring  back  our  fishermen,  and  such  provisions  as 
they  had  for  fishing,  viz.  of  salt,  if  any  remainder  be, 
as  also  of  hooks,  lines,  knives,  boots,  and  barrels, 
which  to  them  will  be  of  no  use,  their  fishing  being 
ended,  but  may  be  of  use  to  you  upon  all  occasions. 
And  as  we  have  hereby  desired  that  a  store-house 
be  built  for  the  shipwrights  and  their  provisions,  and 
an  inventory  kept  thereof,  so  we  desire  likewise  that 
the  same  course  be  observed  for  the  fishermen,  and 
an  inventory  be  duly  kept  of  all  the  provisions  and 
implements  for  fishing,  and  a  copy  thereof  to  be  sent 
unto  us  ;  and  that  such  a  careful  person  be  appoint- 
ed to  take  care  and  charge  thereof,  to  preserve  the 


'  This  was  probably  the  fijst  ves- 
sel built  in  the  Colony,  and  preceded, 
by  at  least  two  years,  the  building 
of  Winthrop's  bark  at  Rlistick,  call- 
ed the  Blessing  of  the  Bay,  of  30 
tons,  which  was  launched  July  4, 
1631,  Cradock,  as  we  have  seen, 
page  137,  carried  on  ship-building 
at  his  plantation  on  Mistick  river, 
and  in  1633  had  a  vessel  on  the 
stocks  of  100  tons,  and  the  next  year 
was  to  build  another  of  twice  the 
burden.  In  1636,  a  ship  of  120 
tons,  called  the  Desire,  was  built  at 
Marblehead.  In  1640  Hugh  Peters 
"  procured  some  to  join  for  building 
a  ship  at  Salem  of  300  tons,  and  the 
inhabitants  of  Boston,  stirred  up  by 
his  example,  set  upon  building  an- 
other at  Boston  of  150  tons."  Her 
name  was  the  Trial.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1642  five  ships  more  were 
built,  three  at  Boston,  one  at  Dor- 
chester, and  one  at  Salem.  In  1644, 
a  ship  of  250  tons  was  built  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  another  of  200  at  Bos- 
ton.    Oct.  17,  1646,  a  ship  of  300 


tons  was  launched  at  Boston.  The 
author  of  New-England's  First 
Fruits,  writing  from  Boston,  Sept. 
26,  1642,  says,  "  Besides  many 
boats,  shallops,  hoys,  lighters,  pin- 
naces, we  are  in  a  way  of  building 
ships  of  an  100,  200,  300,  400  tons. 
Five  of  them  are  already  at  sea, 
many  more  in  hand  at  this  present, 
we  being  much  encouraged  herein 
by  reason  of  the  plenty  and  excel- 
lency of  our  timber  for  that  purpose, 
and  seeing  all  the  materials  will  be 
had  there  in  short  time."  Such 
was  the  origin  and  early  progress 
of  ship-building  in  Massachusetts, 
a  branch  of  her  industry  which, 
in  the  year  ending  April  1 ,  1845, 
employed  1017  men,  and  produced 
112  vessels,  whose  burthen  was 
26,312  tons,  and  whose  value  was 
$1,172,147.  See  Savage's  Win- 
throp,  i.  57,  60,  193,  ii.  24,  65, 
173,  278  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  i.  248 ; 
Statistics  of  the  Condition  and  Pro- 
ducts of  certain  Branches  of  Indus- 
try in  Massachusetts,  p.  362. 


186  THOMAS    BEARD,  THE    FIRST    SHOEMAKER. 

CHAP,  same  from  loss  and  spoil,  as  you  in  your  discretions 

— —  shall   think   fit ;   which  we  pray  you  take  into  your 

1629.  especial  care  and  consideration  ;  and  so  to  order  this 

28^    and  other  business,  by  distributing  the  care  thereof 

to  several  persons,  that  the  burthen  be  not  too  heavy 

to  any  particular,  and  so  the  business  itself  suffer. 

And  this  care  we  desire  may  be  taken,  for  that  we 

know  not  how  soon  we  may  resolve  of  some  other 

division. 

Thomas  Beard, ^  a  shoemaker,  and  Isaac  Rickman, 
being  both  recommended  to  us  by  Mr.  Simon  Whet- 
combe,^  to  receive  their  diet  and  house-room  at  the 
charge  of  the  Company,  we  have  agreed  they  shall 
be  with  you,  the  Governor,  or  placed  elsewhere,  as 
you  shall  think  good,  and  receive  from  you,  or  by 
your  appointment,  their  diet  and  lodging  ;  for  which 
they  are  to  pay,  each  of  them,  after  the  rate  of  ,£10 
per  annum.  And  we  desire  to  receive  a  certificate 
under  the  hand  of  whomsoever  they  shall  be  so  dieted 
and  lodged  with,  how  long  time  they  have  remained 
with  them,  in  case  they  shall  otherwise  dispose  of 
themselves,  before  the  year  be  expired,  or  at  least- 
wise at  the  end  of  each  year,  to  the  end  we  may  here 
receive  payment  according  to  the  said  agreement. 
The  said  Thomas  Beard  hath  in  the  ship  the  May- 
flower divers  hides,  both  for  soles  and  upper  leathers, 
which  he  intends  to  make  up  in  boots  and  shoes  there 
in  the  country.  We  pray  you  let  Mr.  Peirce,  the 
master  of  the  said  ship,  view  the  said  leather,  and 
estimate  what  tonnage  the  same  may  import ;  that  so 

'  Thomas  Beard   was  admitted  a  as  appears  from  tlie  preceding  Rec- 

freeman  May  10,  1G43.  ords,  was  a  very  active  member  of 

*  Whetcombe  was  one  of  the  pa-  the   Company,    and   a   constant  at- 

tentees  named  in  the  Charter,  and,  tendant  at  its  meetings. 


LANDS  TO  EE  HELD  BY  SERVICE.  187 

the  said  Beard  may  either  pay  unto  you  there  after  chap. 
the  rate  of  £4  per  ton  for  freight  of  the  same ;  the  -— ^- 
like  for  his  diet,  if  there  be  occasion  to  use  any  of  his  i629. 
commodities  ;  or  otherwise,  upon  your  advice,  we  2^. 
may  receive  it  of  Mr.  AVhetcombe,  who  hath  prom- 
ised to  see  the  same  discharged.  We  desire  also 
the  said  Thomas  Beard  may  have  fifty  acres  of  land 
allotted  to  him,  as  one  that  transports  himself  at  his 
own  charge.  But  as  well  for  him  as  all  others  that 
shall  have  land  allotted  to  them  in  that  kind,  and  are 
no  adventurers  in  the  common  stock,  which  is  to 
support  the  charge  of  fortifications,  as  also  for  the 
ministry'^  and  divers  other  aflfairs,  we  hold  it  fit  that 
these  kind  of  men,  as  also  such  as  shall  come  to  in- 
herit lands  by  their  service,  should,  by  w^ay  of  ac- 
knowledgment to  such  from  whom  they  receive  these 
lands,  become  liable  to  the  performance  of  some  ser- 
vice, certain  days  in  the  year,  and  by  that  service 
they  and  their  posterity  after  them  to  hold  and  inherit 
these  lands  ;^  which  will  be  a  good  means  to  enjoy 
their  lands  from  being  held  in  capite,  and  to  support 
the  Plantation  in  general  and  particular. 

We  may  not  omit,  out  of  our  zeal  for  the  general 
good,  once  more  to  put  you  in  mind  to  be  very  cir- 
cumspect in  the  infancy  of  the  Plantation  to  settle 
some  good  orders,  whereby  all  persons  resident  upon 
our  Plantation   may  apply  themselves  to  one  calling, 

*  See  pages  96  and  1 18.     Hutch-  and  cheap  to  authorize  it,  or  render 

inson,  i.  14,  says  that  no  notice  was  it   practicable  ;    and    accordingly  it 

taken  in  the  Colony  of  the  provision  was  all  held  in  fee  simple.     One  of 

that  one  half  of  the  charge  of  the  the  early  settlers,  writing  home  from 

fortifications  and  support  of  the  min-  New-Plymouth  in  1621,  says,  "  We 

isters  should  be  paid  out  of  the  joint  are  all   freeholders  ;     the   rent-day 

stock.  doth  not  trouble  us."     See  Chroni- 

^  This  feudal    tenure  was  never  cles  of  Plymouth,  p.  250. 
established.     Land  was  too  plentiful 


188  JUSTICE    TO    BE    IMPARTIALLY    ADMINISTERED. 

CHAP,  or  Other,  and  no  idle  drone  be  permitted  to  live 

• — -— '  amongst  us  ;^  which  if  you  take  care  now  at  the  first 

1629.  to  establish,  will  be   an  undoubted  means,  through 

^Q^   God's   assistance,  to  prevent   a  world  of  disorders, 

and  many  grievous  sins  and  sinners. 

The  course  we  have  prescribed  for  keeping  a  daily 
register  in  each  family,  of  what  is  done  by  all  and 
every  person  in  the  family,  will  be  a  great  help  and 
remembrance  to  you,  and  to  future  posterity^  for  the 
upholding  and  continuance  of  this  good  act,  if  once 
well  begun  and  settled  ;  which  we  heartily  wish  and 
desire,  as  aforesaid. 

And  as  we  desire  all  should  live  in  some  honest 
calling  and  profession,  so  we  pray  you  to  be  unpar- 
tial  in  the  administration  of  justice,  and  endeavour 
that  no  man  whatsoever,  freeman  or  servant  to  any, 
may  have  just  cause  of  complaint  herein.  And  for 
that  it  cannot  be  avoided  but  offences  will  be  given, 
we  heartily  pray  you  to  admit  of  all  complaints  that 
shall  be  made  to  you,  or  any  of  you  that  are  of  the 
Council,  be  the  complaint  never  so  mean,  and  pass 
"  it  not  slightly  over,  but  seriously  examine  the  truth 
of  the  business  ;  and  if  you  find  there  was  just  cause 
for  the  complaint,  endeavour  to  right  the  oppressed 
in  the  best  manner  you  can.  But,  howsoever,  take 
some  strict  course  to  prevent  the  like  ;  and  such  as 
are  by  us  put  in  authority,  as  subordinate  governors 
of  families,  if  they  shall  abuse  any  under  their  gov- 
ernment, and  after  a  gentle  admonition  do  not  reform 


'  This  is  noteworthy.  cd.     They  might  have  thrown  light 

^  Posterity  would  have  liked  to  see  on   the  history  of  families,  and  the 

these  family  registers,  and  regrets  character  and  struggles  of  the   first 

that  none  of  them  have  been  preserv-  planters. 


SWEARERS    TO    BE    PUNISHED.  189 

it,  fail  not  speedily  to  remove  them,  as  men  more  fit  chap. 

to  be  governed  than  to  govern  others,   and  place  

more  fit  and  sufficient  men  in  their  stead.  Butif^^^^' 
you  find  any  complaint  to  be  made  without  just  cause  28. 
given,  let  not  such  a  fault  escape  without  severe 
punishment,  and  that  forthwith,  and  in  public, 
whereby  to  terrify  all  others  from  daring  to  complain 
against  any  that  shall  be  set  over  them  without  a  just 
cause.  We  pray  you  take  this  earnestly  to  heart, 
and  neglect  not  the  due  execution  thereof  upon 
plaintiff"  or  defendant,  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
offence.  It  will  be  a  means,  through  God's  mercy, 
of  preventing  many  inconveniences  and  disorders, 
that  otherwise  will  undoubtedly  befall  you  and  the 
whole  government  there. 

And  amongst  other  sins  we  pray  you  make  some 
good  laws  for  the  punishing  of  swearers,  whereunio 
it  is  to  be  feared  too  many  are  addicted  that  are  ser- 
vants sent  over  formerly  and  now.  These  and  other 
abuses  we  pray  you  who  are  in  authority  to  endeav- 
our seriously  to  reform,  if  ever  you  expect  comfort 
or  a  blessing  from  God  upon  our  Plantation. 

We  have  discharged  divers  servants  here  that  we 
had  entertained  and  been  at  great  charges  with  some 
of  them.  Yet  fearing  their  ill  life  might  be  prejudi- 
cial to  the  Plantation,  w^e  rather  thought  fit  to  dis- 
miss them  and  lose  our  charges,  than  to  burthen  the 
Plantation   with   them.'     Amongst   others,    in   like 


'  The    Company   seem  to  have  afterwards  Lieutenant-Governor,  in 

taken  all  possible  precautions  to  pre-  the     Election    Sermon    which    he 

vent    immoral   persons  from  going  preached   in   1668,    "  God  sifted  a 

over  to  their  Plantation.     They  in-  whole  nation,   that   he   might  send 

tended  to  colonize  only  "the  best."  choice  grain  over  into  this  wilder- 

As  was  said  by  William  Stoughton,  ness." 


190  SPIRITS    NOT    TO    BE    SOLD    TO    THE    INDIANS. 

CHAP,  manner  dismissed  by  the  Governor,  two  of  the  three 

VI.  ,  -^ 

■ fishermen  of  his  formerly  mentioned  are  gone.     We 

1629.  jQy})f  j^Qj-  i^ut  God  will  in  due  time  provide  us  suffi- 

28.    ciently  with  honest  and  able   servants,  and  we  hope 

these  sent  will  be  conformable  to  good  government  ; 

which  if  they  do  willingly  and  cheerfully,  will  be  the 

greater  comfort   to  you  and  us  ;   if  otherwise,    we 

doubt  not  but  you  in  your  good  discretions  will  know 

how   to   proceed    with   such.     Wherein,  and  in   all 

things  else  you  go  about,  we  beseech  the  Almighty 

so  to  direct  you,  as  that  God  alone  may  have  the 

glory,  and  you  and  we  comfort  here  temporally,  and 

hereafter  perpetually. 

We  pray  you  to  take  notice  that  in  these  and  the 
former  ships  there  is  shipped  in  cattle  and  other  pro- 
visions, according  to  particular  invoices  here  enclos- 
ed ;  but  whether  all  things  be  inserted  in  the  same 
invoices  we  make  doubt,  and  therefore  pray  you  to 
be  careful  a  due  register  be  kept  of  all  put  ashore. 

We  pray  you  endeavour,  though  there  be  much 
strong  waters  sent  for  sale,  yet  so  to  order  it  as  that 
the  salvages  may  not,  for  our  lucre  sake,  be  induced 
to  the  excessive  use,  or  rather  abuse  of  it  ;^  and  at 
any  hand  take  care  our  people  give  no  ill  example  ; 
and  if  any  shall  exceed  in  that  inordinate  kind  of 
drinking  as  to  become  drunk,  we  hope  you  will  take 
care  his  punishment  be  made  exemplary  for  all 
others.  Let  the  laws  be  first  published  to  forbid 
these  disorders,  and  all  others  you  fear  may  grow 
up  ;  whereby  they  may  not  pretend  ignorance  of  the 

'  In  conformity  with  this  direc-  liquors  to  the  Indians.     See  Mass. 

tion,  seveial  orders  were  made,  at  Colony  Laws,  p.  76,  (ed.  1672,)  p. 

different  times,  forbidding  any  per-  134,  (ed.  1814.) 
80D   in   the   Colony  selling    strong 


THE    COMPANY  S    IXSTRUCTIONS. 


191 


one  nor  privilege  to 'offend  ;  and  then  fear  not  to  put  chap. 
good  laws,  made  upon  good  ground  and  warrant,  in  > — -— - 
due  execution.  1629. 

And   so  recommendino;  you  and  all  your  affairs  to    ^j^y 

»  J  ^  J  28. 

the  protection   of  the   Almighty,  we  conclude,  and 
rest,  Yours,  &c. 

Gravesend,  3  June,  1629. 

To  the  worshipful  our  very  loving  friends,  Capt.  John  Endecott, 
Esq.,  Governor,  Fraxcis  Higgenson,  Samuel  Skelton, 
Francis  Bright,  John  and  Sa:\iuel  Browne,  Samuel 
Sharpe,  Tho.mas  Graves,  and  the  rest  of  the  Council  for 
London's  Plantation  in  the  Mattachusetts  Bay,  in  New- 
England.* 


'  These  two  General  Letters  of 
Instructions  to  Gov.  Endicott  and 
his  Council,  are  bound  up  at  the  end 
of  the  first  book  of  Deeds  in  the  Re- 
gistry of  Suffolk.  How  they  came 
there,  is  not  known .  They  are  in  the 
hand-writing  of  Burgess,  the  second 
Secretary  of  the  Company,  as  will  be 


manifest  to  any  one  who  will  inspect 
and  compare  them  with  his  entries 
in  the  first  volume  of  the  Court 
Records  at  the  State  House.  The 
manuscript  is  either  the  duplicate 
mentioned  on  page  166,  or  part  of 
the  Company's  Letter  Book,  men- 
tioned on  page  99. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE    FORM    OF    GOVERNMENT    FOR    THE    COLONY. 

CHAP.      A  General  Court  holden  at  London  the  30th  day 

VTT  • 

.,^_L  of  April,  1629,  by  the  Governor  and  Company  of  the 
1629.  Mattachusetts  Bay,  in  New-England.^ 

April 
on 

Whereas  the  King's  most  excellent  Majesty  hath 
been  graciously  pleased  to  erect  and  establish  us,  by 
his  letters  patents  under  the  great  seal  of  England, 
to  be  a  body  corporate,  entitled  The  Governor  and 
Company  of  the  Mattachusetts  Bay  in  New-England  ; 
and  thereby  hath  endowed  us  with  many  large  and 
ample  privileges  and  immunities,  with  power  to  make 
good  and  wholesome  laws,  orders,  and  ordinances, 
for  the  better  maintenance  and  support  of  the  said 
privileges,  and  for  the  better  and  more  orderly  and 
regular  government  to  be  observed  in  the  prosecu- 
tion and  propagation  of  our  intended  voyages  and  the 
Plantation  there  ;  authorizing  us  to  nominate  and 
appoint  and  select  fit  persons  amongst  ourselves  for 
the  managing,  ordering  and  governing  of  our  affairs, 
both  in  England  and  in  the  places    specified    and 

'  See  pages  66,  68,  73,  and  144. 


ENDICOTT    APPOINTED    GOVERNOR.  193 

granted  unto  us  by  virtue  of  his  Majesty's  said  char-  chap. 

ter  :    We  have,  in  the  prosecution  of  the  said  povs^er 

and  authority  given  us,  and  in  conformity  thereunto,  1629. 
and  to  the  purpose  and  intent  thereof,  and  not  other-  30 
wise,  thought  fit  to  settle  and  establish  an  absolute^ 
government  at  our  Plantation  in  the  said  Mattachu- 
setts  Bay,  in  New-England  ;  which,  by  the  vote  and 
consent  of  a  full  and  ample  Court  now  assembled,  is 
thought  fit  and  ordered,  as  followeth,  viz. 

That  thirteen  of  such  as  shall  be  reputed  the  most 
wise,  honest,  expert,  and  discreet  persons,  resident 
upon  the  said  Plantation,  shall,  from  time  to  time, 
and  at  all  time  hereafter,  have  the  sole  managing  and 
ordering  of  the  government  and  of  our  affairs  there  ; 
who,  to  the  best  of  their  judgments,  are  to  endeav- 
our so  to  settle  the  same  as  may  make  most  to  the 
glory  of  God,  the  furtherance  and  advancement  of 
this  hopeful  Plantation,  the  comfort,  encouragement, 
and  future  benefit  of  us  and  others,  the  beginners 
and  prosecutors  of  this  so  laudable  a  work  ;  the  said 
thirteen  persons  so  appointed  to  be  entitled  by  the 
name  of  The  Governor  and  Council  of  London's  Plant- 
ation in  the  Mattachusetts  Bay  in  New-England. 

And  having  taken  into  due  consideration  the 
merit,  worth,  and  good  desert  of  Captain  John 
Endecott,  and  others  lately  gone  over  from  hence 
with  purpose  to  reside  and  continue  there,  we  have, 
with  full  consent  and  authority  of  this  Court,  and  by 
erection  of  hands,  chosen  and  elected  the  said  Cap- 
tain John  Endecott  to  the  place  of  present  Governor 
in  our  said  Plantation. 

^  This  is  noteworthy. 
13 


194  endicott's  council. 

CHAP.      Also,  by  the  same  power,  and  with  the  like  full 

> — ~  and  free  consent,  we  have  chosen   and  elected  Mr. 

1629.  Francis  Higgesson,  Mr.  Samuel  Skelton,  Mr.  Francis 

"^5"^  Bright,  Mr.  John  Browne,  Mr.  Samuel  Browne,  Mr. 

Thomas    Graves,    and    Mr.   Samuel   Sharpe,   these 

seven,  to  be  of  the  said  Council ;  and  do  hereby  give 

power  and  authority  to  the  said  Governor  and  those 

seven  to  make  choice  of  three  others,  such  as  they, 

or  the  greater  number  of  them,  in  their  discretions 

shall  esteem  and  conceive  most  fit  thereunto,  to  be 

also  of  the  said  Council. 

And  to  the  end  that  the. former  planters^  there 
may  have  no  just  occasion  of  exception,  as  being  ex- 
cluded out  of  the  privileges  of  the  Company,  this 
Court  are  content,  and  do  order,  by  erection  of  hands, 
that  such  of  the  said  former  planters  as  are  willing 
to  live  within  the  limits  of  our  Plantation,  shall  be 
enabled  and  are  hereby  authorized,  to  make  choice 
of  two,  such  as  they  shall  think  fit,  to  supply  and 
make  up  the  number  of  twelve  of  the  said  Council  ; 
one  of  which  twelve  is  by  the  Governor  and  Council, 
or  the  major  part  of  them,  to  be  chosen  Deputy  to 
the  Governor  for  the  time  being. 

And  further,  the  Court  doth  authorize  and  give 
power  to  the  said  Governor  and  Council,  or  the  ma- 
jor part  of  them,  (whereof  the  Governor  or  Deputy 
to  be  always  one,)  to  make  choice  of  a  Secretary  and 
such  other  subordinate  ofhcers,  to  attend  them  at 
their  courts,  meetings,  or  otherwise,  as  in  their  dis- 
cretions shall  seem  meet  and  needful.  And  to  the 
end  that  every  one  of  the  forenamed  officers,  as  well 
Governor,  Deputy,    and  Council,   as  others   whom 

*  Conant  and  his  associates,  employed  by  the  Dorchester  adventurers. 
See  page  145. 


THE  GOVERNMENT  CHOSEN  FOR  ONE  YEAR.       195 

they  shall  think  fit  to  nominate  and  choose,  may  be  chap. 
the  more  careful  in  performance  of  the  charge  com-  . — L- 
mitted  unto  them,  it  is  by  this  Court  thought  fit  and  1629. 
ordered,  that  each  of  them  shall  take  an  oath,  proper     |J 
to  that  place  he  shall  be  elected  and  chosen  to,  which 
is  to  be  administered   unto  him  or  them  at  the  time 
of  his  or  their  election  or  admittance   into  the  said 
several  place  or  places. 

And  we  do  hereby  authorize  [blank]  to  administer 
unto  the  Governor  the  oath  to  his  place  appertain- 
ing ;  and  that  the  Governor,  having  taken  his  oath, 
as  aforesaid,  shall  administer  the  oath  to  the  Deputy 
appertaining  to  his  place.  And  we  do  further  hereby 
authorize  the  Governor,  or  Deputy,  or  either  of  them, 
to  administer  the  oath  to  the  rest  of  the  Council,  and 
unto  all  others  the  several  officers  respectively ; 
which  said  oaths  are  to  be  administered  in  a  public 
Court,  and  not  elsewhere. 

It  is  further  concluded  on,  and  ordered  by  this 
Court,  that  the  said  Governor,  Deputy,  and  Council, 
before  named,  so  chosen  and  established  in  their 
several  places,  shall  continue  and  be  confirmed 
therein  for  the  space  of  one  whole  year,  from  and 
after  the  taking  the  oath,  or  until  such  time  as  this 
Court  shall  think  fit  to  make  choice  of  any  others  to 
succeed  in  the  place  or  places  of  them,  or  any  of 
them.  And  if  it  shall  please  God  that  any  of  them, 
or  any  others  to  be  hereafter  chosen  to  any  oflice 
there,  shall  depart  this  life  before  the  expiration 
of  the  time  they  w^ere  so  chosen,  or  for  any  misde- 
meanour or  unfitness  shall  be  held  unmeet  for  the 
place  he  was  formerly  chosen  unto,  that  then  the 
Governor,  or  Deputy,  and  Council,  or  the  greater 
number  of  them,  at  an  ample  Court  assembled,  shall 


196  THE  GOVERNMENT  TO  MAKE  LAWS. 

CHAP,  have  power,  and  hereby  are  authorized,  not  only  to 

^ — —  remove  and  displace  such  unfit  person  or  persons,^ 

1629.  but  also  to  nominate  and  choose  a  fit  person  or  per- 

^Iq^  sons  to  succeed  him  or  them  so  deceased,  removed, 

or  displaced,   as   aforesaid,   into   the    said  place    or 

places,  for  the  residue  of  the  time  unexpired. 

And  it  is  further  agreed  on  and  ordered,  that  the 
Governor  for  the  time  being,  shall  have  power,  and 
is  hereby  authorized,  to  call  courts  and  meetings  in 
places  and  at  times  convenient,  as  to  his  discretion 
shall  seem  meet  ;  which  power  is  hereby  also  con- 
ferred upon  the  Deputy,  in  the  absence  of  the  said 
Governor.  And  the  said  Governor  or  Deputy,  to- 
gether with  the  said  Council,  being  chosen  and  as- 
sembled as  aforesaid,  and  having  taken  their  oaths 
respectively  to  their  several  places,  they,  or  the 
greater  number  of  them,  whereof  the  Governor  or 
Deputy  to  be  always  one,  are  authorized  by  this  Act, 
grounded  on  the  power  derived  from  his  Majesty's 
charter,  to  make,  ordain,  and  establish  all  manner  of 
wholesome  and  reasonable  laws,  orders,  ordinances, 
and  constitutions,^  (so  as  the  same  be  no  way  repug- 
nant or  contrary  to  the  laws  of  the  realm  of  Eng- 
land,) for  the  administering  of  justice  upon  malefac- 
tors, and  inflicting  condign  punishment  upon  all  other 
offenders,  and  for  the  furtherance  and  propagating  of 
the  said  Plantation,  and  the  more  decent  and  orderly 
government  of  the  inhabitants  resident  there.^ 

*  This  justified  Endicott  in  dis-  ^  This  Act  for  establishing  the 
placing  the  Biownes  from  the  Coun-  government  in  New-England,  is 
oil.  They  had  been  guilty,  to  say  printed  from  the  copy  transcribed 
the  least,  of  a  misdemeanour.  into    the    Company's   Records,    by 

*  Instructions,  in  the  Charter  and  Secretary  Burgess,  fol.  11-14. 
in  the  Company's  Records.  Seep.  67. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  ALLOTMENT  OF  THE  LANDS. 

At  a  Court  of  Assistants  on  Thursday,  the  21st  of 
May,  1629.1 

This  Court  taking  into  due  and  mature  considera-  chap. 
.        .                            .                      vni 
tion  how  necessary  it  will  be  that   a  dividend  be  ^^ -^ 

forthwith  made  of  some  competent  quantity  of  land  ^^^g. 
in  the  London  Plantation  in  New-England,  both  for  2if 
the  present  accommodation  of  the  people  lately  gone 
thither,  as  well  to  build  them  houses,  as  to  enclose 
and  manure,  and  to  feed  their  cattle  on,  have  thought 
fit  and  ordered,  that  the  Governor,  Deputy,  and 
Council  there  shall  make  a  dividend  accordingly, 
and  allot  the  same  unto  the  several  adventurers  and 
others,  as  followeth,  viz. 

That  two  hundred  acres  of  land  be  by  them  allot- 
ted to  each  adventurer  for  £50  adventure  in  the 
common  stock,  and  so  after  that  rate,  and  according 
to  that  proportion,  for  more  or  less,  as  the  adventure 
is,  to  the  intent  they  may  build  their  houses  and 
improve  their  labors  thereon. 

'  See  pages  74-77. 


1629, 


198  THE    ALLOTMENT    OF    LANDS. 

That  every  adventurer  in  the  common  stock,  or 
his  servant  for  him  or  on  his  behalf,  shall  make  re- 
quest or  demand  to  the  Governor  or  Deputy  and 
2iT  Council,  to  have  a  proportion  of  land  allotted  unto 
him  accordingly ;  and  if,  within  ten  days  after  such 
request  or  demand  made,  the  same  be  not  set  out 
and  allotted  unto  him,  then  such  person  or  persons 
are,  by  virtue  of  this  Act,  permitted  and  authorized 
to  seat  him  or  themselves,  and  build  his  or  their 
house  or  houses,  and  enclose  and  manure  ground  in 
any  convenient  place  or  places  not  formerly  built 
upon  or  manured  ;  provided  that  the  land  so  made 
choice  of  by  any  such  person  or  persons  do  not  ex- 
ceed in  quantity  the  one  half  of  the  land  which  is  to 
be  allotted  unto  him  or  them  by  dividend,  according 
to  this  order  above  written  ;  with  liberty  also,  when 
the  first  dividend  shall  be  made,  to  take  his  or  their 
allotment  of  land  as  others  do,  in  lieu  of  this,  if  in 
the  mean  time  the  first  choice  shall  be  disliked  by 
them,  or  any  of  them. 

And  for  further  explanation  of  this  Act,  it  is 
thought  fit,  that  if  the  plot  of  ground  whereon  the 
town  is  to  be  built  be  set  out,  and  that  it  be  publicly 
known  to  be  intended  for  that  purpose,  that  then  no 
man  shall  presume  to  build  his  house  in  any  other 
place,  unless  it  be  in  the  Mattachusetts  Bay,  and 
there  according  to  such  direction  as  shall  be  thought 
meet  for  that  place.  And  in  case  his  allotment  for 
building  his  house  within  the  plot  of  ground  set  out 
for  building  of  the  town  be  not  appointed  unto  him 
within  ten  days  after  demand  or  request  to  the  Gov- 
ernor or  the  Deputy  and  Council  for  the  same,  it 
shall  be  free  for   any,   being   an  adventurer  in  the 


THE  ALLOTMENT  OF  LANDS.  199 

common  stock,  or  his  servant  for  him  or  on  his  be-  chap. 

VIII. 

half,  to  build  his  house  in  any  place  within  the  said 

plot  set  out  for  the  town,  and  to  impale  to  the  quan-  1629. 
tity  of  half  an  acre  of  ground  for  each  <£50  adventure    off 
in  the  common   stock  ;   unless   a  greater   or  lesser 
proportion  be  formerly  determined  by  the  Governor 
and  Council,  by  which  each  builder  is  to  be  guided 
and  directed. 

It  is  further  thought  fit  and  ordered,  that  all  such 
as  go  over  in  person,  or  send  over  others  at  their 
own  charge,  and  are  adventurers  in  the  common 
stock,  shall  have  lands  allotted  unto  them  for  each 
person  they  transport  to  inhabit  the  Plantation,  as 
w^ell  servants  as  all  others  ;  which  fifty  acres  of  land, 
so  allotted  to  servants  or  others,  is  hereby  ordered 
to  be  to  and  for  the  use  of  his  master  or  setter  forth, 
being  an  adventurer  in  the  common  stock,  to  dispose 
of  at  his  discretion,  in  regard  the  master,  &c.  is  at 
the  charge  of  the  said  servant  and  others  their  trans- 
portation, wages,  and  otherwise.  But  for  such  as 
being  no  adventurers  in  the  common  stock  shall 
transport  themselves  and  their  families,  it  is  ordered 
that  fifty  acres  of  land  shall  be  allotted  and  set  out 
for  the  master  of  the  family,  and  such  a  proportion 
of  land  more,  if  there  be  cause,  as,  according  to  their 
charge  and  quality,  the  Governor  and  Council  of  the 
Plantation  there  shall  think  necessary  for  them, 
whereby  their  charge  may  be  fully  and  amply  sup- 
ported; unless  it  be  to  any  with  whom  the  Company 
in  London  have  or  shall  make  any  other  particular 
agreement,  to  which  relation  is  to  be  had  in  such 
case. 

And  to  the  end  every  adventurer  may  the  more 


200  THE    ALLOTMENT    OF    LANDS. 

CHAF.  safely  and  peaceably  enjoy  their  said  lands   allotted 
— — -  unto  them  or  chosen  by  them,  and  the  houses  they 
1629.  buiifj  thereupon,  as  abovesaid,  it  is  thought  fit  and 
21.    ordered  by  this  Court,   that  conveyances   shall  be 
made  thereof  unto  each  particular  man  for  the  land 
he  possesseth,  in  the  Company's  name,  and  the  com- 
mon seal  of  the  Company  to  be  thereunto  affixed  by 
the  Governor  and  Council   there,  at  the  charge  of 
the  Company  ;  which  common  seal  is  by  this  Court 
thought  fit  and  ordered  to  be  committed  to  the  charge 
and  keeping  of  the  Governor  for  the  time  being,  and 
in  his  absence,  to  his  Deputy  there. 

All  which  premises  before  mentioned  the  Compa- 
ny do  by  general  consent  ratify,  establish  and  con- 
firm ;  and  do  also  order,  that  copies  of  these  Acts 
shall  be  sent  over  to  the  Governor  and  Council  there 
resident,  subscribed  by  the  Governor,  Deputy,  and 
six  of  the  Assistants  here,  and  sealed  with  the  com- 
mon seal  of  the  Company.^ 

*  See  page  78.  ny's  Records,  in  the  handwriting  of 

This  Act  for  the  allotment  of  the     Secretary  Burgess,  fol.  11-16. 
lands  is  also  taken  from  the  Compa- 


CHAPTER  IX. 

OATHS  OF  OFFICE  FOR  THE  GOVERNOR  AND  COUNCIL.^ 

The  Oath  of  the  Governor  in  New-England.^ 

You  shall  be  faithful  and  loyal  unto  our  Sovereign  chap. 
Lord,  the  King's  Majesty,  and  to  his  heirs  and  sue-  - — -^ 
cessors.     You  shall  support  and  maintain,  to  your  16  29. 
power,  the  government  and  Company  of  the  Matta-     ^^* 
chusetts  Bay,  in  New-England,  in  America,  and  the 
privileges  of  the  same,  having  no  singular  regard  to 
yourself  in  derogation  or  hindrance  of  the  common 
wealth  of  this  Company  ;   and  to  every  person  under 
your  authority  you  shall  administer  indifferent   and 
equal  justice.      Statutes  and  ordinances   shall   you 
none  make  without  the  advice   and  consent  of  the 
Council  for  the    government  of  the  Mattachusetts 
Bay  in  New-England.     You  shall  admit  none  into 
the  freedom  of  this  Company  but  such  as  may  claim 
the  same  by  virtue  of  the  privileges  thereof     You 
shall  not  bind  yourself  to  enter  into  any  business  or 
process  for  or  in  the  name  of  this  Company,  without 

'  See  page  69.  istered  to  the  Deputy."     Marginal 

'^  "  Thia  oath  is  also  to  be  admin-    note  in  the  MS. 


202 


THE    GOVERNOR  S    OATH. 


^'H^p.  the  consent  and  agreement  of  the  Council  aforesaid, 
' — ^ — '  but  shall  endeavour  faithfully  and  carefully  to  carry 
1629.  yourself  in  this  place  and  office  of  Governor,  as  long 
^^"  as  you  shall  continue  in  it.  And  likewise  you  shall 
do  your  best  endeavour  to  draw  on  the  natives  of 
this  country,  called  New-England,  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  True  God,  and  to  conserve  the  planters,  and 
others  coming  hither,  in  the  same  knowledge  and 
fear  of  God.  And  you  shall  endeavour,  by  all  good 
means,  to  advance  the  good  of  the  Plantations  of  this 
Company,  and  you  shall  endeavour  the  raising  of 
such  commodities  for  the  benefit  and  encouragement 
of  the  adventurers  and  planters  as,  through  God's 
blessing  on  your  endeavours,  may  be  produced  for 
the  good  and  service  of  the  kingdom  of  England,  this 
Company,  and  their  Plantations.  All  these  premises 
you  shall  hold  and  keep  to  the  uttermost  of  your 
power  and  skill,  so  long  as  you  shall  continue  in  the 
place  of  Governor  of  this  fellowship.  So  help  you 
God! 


The  Oath  of  the  Council  in  New- England. 

You  swear  to  be  faithful  and  loyal  to  our  Sovereign 
Lord,  the  King's  Majesty,  and  to  his  heirs  and  succes- 
sors. You  shall  from  time  to  time  give  your  best 
advice  and  counsel  for  supporting  and  maintaining 
the  common  wealth  and  corporation  of  The  Governor 
and  Compariy  of  the  Mattachusctts  Bay,  in  New-Eng- 
land ;  not  sparing  for  love  nor  dread,  for  favor  nor 
meed,  but  according  to  the  statutes  and  ordinances 


THE  OATH  OF  THE  COUNCIL. 


203 


made  and  to  be  made  by  virtue  of  the  Charter  of  the  chap. 

IX. 

said  Company,   shall  effectually  assist  the  Governor,  ^^ — ^ 
or  his  Deputy  and  Council  of  the  said  Company,  in  1629. 
executing  the  said  statutes  and  ordinances  ;  having    ^^^y* 
no  singular  regard  to  yourself  in  derogation  of  the 
common  wealth  of  the  same.     All  these  premises 
you  shall  hold  and   truly  keep  to  your  power,  so 
long   as  you  shall  continue  in  the  place  or  office  of 
one  of  the  said  Council.     So  help  you  God  !^ 


^  These  Oaths  of  Office  for   the  setts,  pages  75  and  76,  hanng  been 

Governor  and   Council,    are  copied  inserted  there  out  of  place,  by  some 

from  the  first  volume  of  the  Records  mistake.     They   are    in   the   hand- 

of  the  General  Comt  of  Massachu-  writing  of  Secretary  Burgess. 


THE  COMPANY'S  AGREEMENT 
WITH  THE  MINISTERS. 


CHAPTER  X 


AGREEMENT    OF    THE     NEW-ENGLAND    COMPANY    WITH 

THE    MINISTERS.^ 


The  Agreement  luith  Mr.  Bright. 

I,  Francis  Bright,  of  Roily ,^  in  Essex,  clerk,  chap. 
have  this  present  2d  February,  1628,  agreed  with  — L- 
the  Company  of  Adventurers  for  New-England,  in  i629. 
America,  to  be  ready  with  my  w^ife,   two  children,    ^g^" 
and  one  maid-servant,  by  the  beginning  of  March 
next,  to  take  our  passage  to  the  Plantation  at  or  near 
Massachusetts  Bay,   in  New-England,  as  aforesaid  ; 
where  I  do  promise,  God  sparing  me  life  and  health, 
to  serve  the  said  Company  in  the  work  of  the  minis- 
try, by  my  true  and  faithful  endeavours,  for  the  space 
of  three  years.     For  and  in  consideration  whereof, 
these  several  particulars  are  this  day  agreed  upon  by 
the  said  Company,  and  by  me  accepted,  namely  : 

1.  That  i!20  shall  be  forthwith  paid  me  by  the 
Company's    treasurer    towards    charges   of    fitting 


'  See  page  143.  London,     See  Newcourt's  Reperto- 

*  The  name  of  this  town  is  now     riura,  ii.  482. 
spelt  Rayleigh.     It  is  26  miles  from 


208  FRANCIS    BRIGHT's    AGREEMENT. 

CHAP,  myself  with  apparel  and  other  necessaries  for  the 

—  voyage. 

1629.  2.  That  £10  more  shall  be  paid  me  by  him  to- 
2. '  wards  providing  of  books  ;  which  said  books,  upon 
my  death  or  removal  from  the  charge  now  intended 
to  be  transferred  upon  me,  are  to  be  and  remain  to 
such  minister  as  shall  succeed  in  my  place  for  the 
said  Company  ;  and  before  my  departure  out  of  Eng- 
land, I  am  to  deliver  a  particular  of  the  said  books. 

3.  That  £20  yearly  shall  be  paid  me  for  three 
years,  to  begin  from  the  time  of  my  first  arrival  in 
New-England,  and  so  to  be  accounted  and  paid  at 
the  end  of  each  year. 

4.  That  during  the  said  time,  the  Company  shall 
provide  for  me  and  my  family  aforementioned,  neces- 
saries of  diet,  housing,  firewood,  and  shall  be  at  the 
charge  of  the  transportation  of  us  into  New-England ; 
and  at  the  end  of  the  said  three  years,  if  I  shall  not 
like  to  continue  longer  there,  to  be  at  charges  of 
transporting  us  back  for  England. 

5.  That  in  convenient  time  a  house  shall  be  built, 
and  certain  lands  allotted  thereunto  ;  which,  during 
my  stay  in  the  country  and  continuing  in  the  minis- 
try, shall  be  for  my  use,  and  after  my  death  or  re- 
moval, the  same  to  be  for  succeeding  ministers. 

6.  That  at  the  expiration  of  the  said  three  years, 
one  hundred  acres  of  land  shall  be  assigned  unto  me, 
for  me  and  my  heirs  forever. 

7.  That  in  case  I  shall  depart  this  life  in  that 
country,  the  said  Company  shall  take  care  for  my 
widow,  during  her  widowhood  and  abode  in  that 
country  'and  Plantation  ;  the  like  for  my  children 
whilst  they  remain  on  the  said  Plantation. 


FRANCIS    HIGGINSON'S    AGREEMENT.  209 

8.  That  the  milk  of  two  kme  shall  be  appointed  chap. 
me  toward  the  charge  of  diet  for  me  and  my  family,  ^^-^ 
as  aforesaid,  and  half  their  increase  during  the  said  1^2 9. 

.  Feb 

three  years,  to  be  likewise  mine  ;  but  the  said  two     2. ' 
kine  and  the  other  half  of  the  increase  to  return  to 
the  Company  at  the  end  of  the  said  three  years. 

9.  That  I  shall  have  liberty  to  carry  bedding, 
linen,  brass,  iron,  pewter,  of  my  own,  for  my  neces- 
sary use  during  the  said  time. 

10.  That  if  I  continue  seven  years  upon  the  said 
Plantation,  that  then  one  hundred  acres  of  land  more 
shall  be  allotted  to  me  for  me  and  my  heirs  forever.^ 


The  Agreement  with  Mr.  Higginson. 
A  true  note  of  the  allowance  that  the  New-England  April 

8 

Company  have,  by  common  consent  and  order  of 
their  Court  and  Council,  granted  unto  Mr.  Francis 
Higginson,^  minister,  for  his  maintenance  in  New- 
England,  April  8,  1629. 

1.  Imprimis,  that  £30  in  money  shall  be  forth- 
with paid  him  by  the  Company's  treasurer  towards 
the  charges  of  fitting  himself  with  apparel  and  other 
necessaries  for  his  voyage. 

2.  Item,  that  £10  more  shall  be  paid  over  by  the 
said  treasurer  towards  the  providing  of  books  for 
present  use. 

3.  Item,  that  he  shall  have  £30  yearly  paid  him 
for  three  years,  to  begin  from  the  time  of  his  first 

*  See  Felt's  Annals  of  Salem,  i.  510,  *  See  page  65. 

14 


210  FRANCIS    HIGGINSON's    AGREEMENT. 

CHAP,  arrival  in  New-Ensrland,  and  so  to  be  accounted  and 

X 

V — ~  paid  him  at  the  end  of  every  year. 
1629.  4_  Item,  that  dm'ing  the  said  time,  the  Company 
^^Q^  shall  provide  for  him  and  his  family  necessaries  of 
diet,  housing  and  firewood,  and  shall  be  at  charges 
of  transporting  him  into  New-England  ;  and  at  the 
end  of  the  said  three  years,  if  he  shall  not  like  to 
continue  there  any  longer,  to  be  at  the  charge  of 
transporting  him  back  for  England. 

5.  Item,  that  in  convenient  time  a  house  shall  be 
built,  and  certain  lands  allotted  thereunto  ;  which, 
during  his  stay  in  the  country,  and  continuance  in 
the  ministry,  shall  be  for  his  use  ;  and  after  his 
death  or  removal,  the  same  to  be  for  succeeding 
ministers. 

6.  Item,  at  the  expiration  of  the  said  three  years, 
a  hundred  acres  of  land  shall  be  assigned  to  him  and 
his  heirs  forever. 

7.  Item,  that  in  case  he  shall  depart  this  life  in 
that  country,  the  said  Company  shall  take  care  for 
his  widow  during  her  widowhood  and  abode  in  that 
country  and  Plantation  ;  and  the  like  for  his  child- 
ren whilst  they  remain  upon  the  said  Plantation. 

8.  Item,  that  the  milk  of  two  kine  shall  be  ap- 
pointed towards  the  charges  of  diet  for  him  and  his 
family  as  aforesaid,  and  half  the  increase  of  calves 
during  the  said  three  years  ;  but  the  said  two  kine, 
and  the  other  half  of  the  increase,  to  return  to  the 
Company  at  the  end  of  the  said  three  years. 

9.  Item,  that  he  shall  have  liberty  of  carrying  over 
bedding,  linen,  brass,  iron,  pewter,  of  his  own,  for 
his  necessary  use  during  the  said  time. 

10.  Item,  that  if  he  continue  seven  years  upon  the 


HIGGINSON    AND    SKELTON's    AGREEMENT.  211 

said   Plantation,  that   then  a  hundred   acres   of  land  chap, 

X. 

more  shall  be  allotted  him  for  him  and  his  forever/ 


The  8th  of  April,  1629.  Mr.  Francis  Higgeson 
and  Mr.  Samuel  Skelton,  intended  ministers  for  this 
Plantation,  and  it  being  thought  meet  to  consider  of 
their  entertainment,  who  expressing  their  willing- 
ness, together  also  with  Mr.  Francis  Bright,  being 
now  present,  to  do  their  endeavour  in  their  places  of 
the  ministry,  as  well  in  preaching,  catechising,  as 
also  in  teaching  or  causing  to  be  taught  the  Compa- 
ny's servants  and  their  children,  as  also  the  salvages 
and  their  children,  whereby  to  their  uttermost  to 
further  the  main  end  of  this  Plantation,  being,  by  the 
assistance  of  Almighty  God,  the  conversion  of  the 
salvages  —  the  propositions  and  agreements  conclud- 
ed on  with  Mr.  Francis  Bright  the  2d  of  February 
last  were  reciprocally  accepted  of  by  Mr.  Francis 
Higgeson  and  Mr.  Samuel  Skelton  ;^  who  are  in  every 
respect  to  have  the  like  conditions  as  Mr.  Bright 
hath.      Only,    whereas    Mr.   Higgeson  hath    eight ^ 

*  This  Agreement  is  printed  from  in  Westmoreland,  where  he  died  in 

an  early  MS.  1672,    aged   55.      3.  Timothy,  ten. 

^  In  Felt's  Annals  of  Salem,  i.  4.  Theophilus,    nine.      5.  Samuel, 

511-513,  is  an    accomit  of  moneys  eight,  who  at  his  mother's  death  in 

due  to    him  from  the  Company  in  1640,   was   bound   as  a  servant  to 

1629  and  1630,  including  his  charges  Gov.  Eaton,  of  New  Haven,  for  two 

for  provisions  and  clothing.  years.    O.Ann,  six.    7.  Mary,  four, 

^  Their  names,  and  their  ages  at  who  died  on  the  passage,  May  19. 

this  time,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  8.  Charles,  one,  who.  in  1640,  was 

to  determine  them  from  the  data  I  bound  apprentice  to  Thomas  Fugill 

have,  were   as  follows: — 1.  John,  for   nine  years.     There   was  a  9th 

thirteen,  concerning  whom  see  note  '  child,  bom  in  Salem,  called   Neo- 

on  p.  166.     2.  Fiancis,  twelve,  who  phytus,   who  had  been  placed  with 

after  studying  at  Leyden  and  other  Atherton  Hough,  at  Boston,  to  be 

universities  on  the  continent,  return-  brought  up.     See  Kingsley's  Hist, 

ed  to   England,  and  was  settled  in  Disc.  p.  103  ;    Mather's   Magnalia, 

the    ministry   at    Kirkby- Stephen,  i.  330. 


212  HIGGINSON    AND    SKELTON's    AGREEMENT. 

CHAP,  children,  it  is  intended  that  i)10  more  yearly  shall 
be  allowed  him  towards  their  charges.  And  it  is 
agreed  that  the  increase  to  be  improved  of  all  their 
grounds,  during  the  first  three  years,  shall  be  at  the 
Company's  disposing,  w^ho  are  to  find  their  diet 
during  that  time;  and  .£10  more  to  Mr.  Higgeson, 
towards  his  present  fitting  him  and  his  for  the  voyage. 

Francis  Higgeson. 

Samuel  Skelton. 

Further,  though  it  was  not  mentioned  in  the 
Agreement,  but  forgotten,  Mr.  Higgeson  was  pro- 
mised a  man-servant,  to  take  care  and  look  to  his 
things,  and  to  catch  him  fish  and  fowl,  and  provide 
other  things  needful,  and  also  two  maid-servants,  to 
look  to  his  family. 


HIGGINSON'S   JOURNAL 


OF 


HIS  VOYAGE  TO  NEW-ENGLAND. 


A  TRUE  Relation  of  the  last  Voyage  to  New -England,  declaring  all 
circumstances,  with  the  manner  of  the  passage  we  had  by  sea, 
and  what  manner  of  country  and  inhabitants  we  found  when  we 
came  to  land  ;  and  what  is  the  present  state  and  condition  of  the 
English  people  that  are  there  already. 

Faithfully  recorded  according  to  the  very  truth,  for  the  satisfaction 
of  very  many  of  my  loving  friends,  who  have  earnestly  requested 
to  be  truly  certified  in  these  things. 

Written  from  New-England,  July  24,  1629. 

If  any  curious  critic  that  looks  for  exactness  of  phrases,  or  expert 
seaman  that  regards  propriety  of  sea  terms,  &c. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

higginson's  journal  of  his  voyage. 

A  TRUE  Relation  of  the  last  Voyage  to  New-Eng-  chap. 

land,  made  the  last  summer,  begun  the  25th  of  April,  

being  Saturday,  Anno  Domini,  1629.  1629. 

April. 

The  Company  of  New-England,  consisting  of  many 
worthy  gentlemen  in  the  city  of  London,  Dorchester, 
and  other  places,  aiming  at  the  glory  of  God,  the 
propagation  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  the  conversion 
of  the  Indians,  and  the  enlargement  of  the  King's 
Majesty's  dominions  in  America,  and  being  author- 
ized by  his  royal  letters  patents  for  that  end,  at  their 
very  great  costs  and  charge  furnished  five  ships  to 
go  to  New-England,  for  the  further  settling  of  the 
English  Plantation  that  they  had  already  begun 
there. ^ 

The  names  of  the  five  ships  were  as  followeth  : 
The  first  is  called  the  Talbot,^  a  good  and  strong 
ship,  of  three  hundred  tons,  and   nineteen  pieces  of 

*  Under  Endicott,  in  1628,  the  ^  Francis  Higginson,  with  his 
year  before.     See  pages  13  and  30.     family,  sailed  in  the  Talbot.     See 

page  143. 


216  NAMES    OF    THE    SHIPS. 

CHAP,  ordnance,  and  served  with  thirty  mariners.  This 
ship  carried  above  a  hundred  planters,  six  goats,  five 
great  pieces  of  ordnance,  with  meal,  oatmeal,  pease, 
and  all  manner  of  munition  and  provision  for  the 
Plantation  for  a  twelvemonth. 

The  second  the  George,^  another  strong  ship  also, 
about  three  hundred  tons,  twenty  pieces  of  ordnance, 
served  with  about  thirty  mariners.  Her  chief  car- 
riage were  cattle,  twelve  mares,  thirty  kine,  and 
some  goats."  Also  she  had  in  her  fifty-two  planters, 
and  other  provision. 

The  third  is  called  the  Lion's  Whelp,^  a  neat  and 
nimble  ship,  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  tons,  eight 
pieces  of  ordnance,  carrying  in  her  many  mariners 
and  above  forty  planters,  specially  from  Dorches- 
ter'' and  other  places  thereabouts,  with  provision, 
and  four  goats. 

The  fourth  is  called  The  Four  Sisters,  as  I  hear, 
of  about  three  hundred  tons  ;  which  fair  ship  carried 
many  cattle,  with  passengers  and  provision. 

The  fifth  is  called  the  Mayflower,^  carrying  pas- 
sengers and  provision.*^ 

Now  amongst  these  five  ships,  the  George  having 
some  special  and  urgent  cause  of  hastening  her  pas- 


'  Samuel  Skelton,  with  his  wife,  ^  Francis   Bright,   with  his  wife 

went  in  the  George.    See  page  143.  and  two  children,  was  in  the  Lion's 

''The  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Whelp.  See  page  143. 
Bay  was,  in  this  particular,  much  "  See  page  50. 
earlier  and  better  ])rovided  than  the  ^  Thirty-five  of  the  Leyden  con- 
Colony  of  New  Plymouth  had  been,  gregation,  with  their  families,  came 
The  latter  had  no  (-attle  till  March,  over  to  Plymouth  at  this  time  in  the 
1624  when  Mr.  Edward  Winslow  Mayflower  and  Talbot.  See  Mass. 
brought  over  a  bull  and  three  Hist.  Coll.  iii.  66  ;  Prince,  pp.  261, 
heifers;  whereas  as  early  as  1626,  264;  Chronicles  of  Plymouth,  page 
twelve  cows  at  least  had  been  sent  482. 

over    to   Cape  Ann.     See   pages  9  "  There  was  a  sixth  vessel  sent, 

and  12,  and  Prince's  Annals,  p.  225.  called  the  Pilgrim.     See  page  175. 


THE    SHIPS    DROP    DOWN    THE    THAMES.  217 

sa2:e,^   set  sail  before   the  rest,  about  the  midst  of  chap. 

^    '  XI. 

April.  And  the  Four  Sisters  and  the  Mayflower, 
being  not  thoroughly  furnished,  intended,  as  we 
heaiTl,  to  set  forth  about  three  weeks  after  us.  But 
we  that  were  in  the  Talbot  and  the  Lion's  Whelp, 
being  ready  for  our  voyage,  by  the  good  hand  of 
God's  providence,  hoisted  up  sail  from  Gravesend  on 
Saturday  the  25th  of  April,  about  seven  o'clock  in  25. 
the  morning.  Having  but  a  faint  wind  we  could  not 
go  far  that  day,  but  at  night  we  anchored  against 
Leigh,"  which  is  twelve  miles  from  Gravesend,  and 
there  we  rested  that  night,  and  kept  Sabbath  the  26. 
next  day. 

On  Monday  we  set  forward  and  came  to  the  Flats, ^  27. 
a  passage  somewhat  difficult  by  reason  of  the  narrow- 
ness of  the  channel^  and  shallowness  of  the  water; 
and  going  over  this  we  were  in  some  danger ;  for 
our  ship  being  heavy  laden  and  drawing  deep  water, 
was  sensibly  felt  of  us  all  to  strike  three  or  four 
times  on  the  ground.  But  the  wind  blowing  some- 
what strong,  we  were  carried  swiftly  on,  and  at  last, 
by  God's  blessing,  came  safe  to  anchor  at  Gorin^ 
road. 

Tuesday  we  w^ent   a  little  further,  and   anchored    28 
over  against  Margate   town,  staying  for  a  wind  for 
the  Downs. 


^  On  account  of  the  cattle  she  had  Sheerness  to  the  North  Foreland, 

onboard — and  also  on  account  of  See  Norie's  British  Channel  Pilot, 

the  instructions  she  was  carrying- out  pp.  13-17. 

to  Endicott  to  anticipate  Oldham  in  *  The  channel  is  called  the  Five 

occupying  Massachusetts  Bay.    See  Fathoms  Channel, 

pages  68  and  150.  *  The  Gore  is  one  of  the  anchor- 

^  Leigh  is  near  the  mouth  of  the  ages  most  commonly  used,  especially 

Thames.  by  large  ships  bound  to  the  Downs, 

^  These    Flats,    under    different  before  coming  to  Margate  and  the 

names,  extend  from  the  Nore  and  North  Foreland.     See  Norie,  p.  17. 


218  THE    SHIPS    IN    THE    DOWNS. 

Wednesday,  we  came  safely,  though   with  much 
turnmg  and   tacking,   through  the   Gulls, ^   into  the 
1629.  Downs,^  and  stayed  that  night. 

20,  Thursday,  Friday,  and  Saturday,  the  wind  blew 
May  hard  from  south-west,  and  caused  our  ship  to  dance; 
^'  ^'  and  divers  of  our  passengers,  and  my  wife  specially, 
were  sea-sick.  Here  the  King's  ship  called  the  As- 
surance pressed  two  of  our  mariners.  Here  we  saw 
many  porpoises  playing  in  the  sea,  which  they  say  is 
a  sign  of  foul  weather. 

3-  Sabbath  day,   a  windy  day   and  cold.     We  kept 

Sabbath,  staying  still  at  the  Downs. 

4.  Monday,  God  sent  us  a  fair  gale  of  wind,  north 
north-east,  whereby  we  came  merrily  from  the 
Downs  ;  and  passing  Dover  we  saw  six  or  seven 
sail  of  Dunkirkers"^  wafting  after  us.  But  it  seemed 
they  saw  our  company  was  too  strong  for  them,  for 
then  we  had  with  us  three  or  four  ships  that  w^ent 
for  the  Straits  ;"*  so  they  returned  back  from  pursu- 
ing us  any  longer.  But  sailing  with  a  good  wind, 
we  went  speedily,  and  at  night  came  near  the  Isle  of 
Wight  ;  but  being  dark,  we  durst  not  put  into  the 
channel,^  but  put  back  for  sea-room  four  hours,  and 
then  other  four  hours  sailed  back  again  the  same 
way. 

'  The   common  track    for   large  ides  of  Plymouth,  note  *  on  page 

ships  to  the  Downs  is  through  the  123,  and  Norie,  p.  28. 

Gull  Stream.     This  is  hounded  on  ^  Dunkirk  was  at  this  time  part 

the   eastern   side   by  the   Goodwin  of   the    Spanish    Netherlands,  and 

Sands,  and  on  the  western  side  by  there  was  war  between  England  and 

the   Elbow.  Gull,  and  Brake  Sands.  Spain. 

See  Norie,  p.  23.  "*  Of  Gibraltar,  bound  up  the  Me- 

^  The  Downs,  or  Dunes,  properly  diteiTanean. 

signify  sand-liills  on  the  coast.    But  *  The  channel  between  the  Isle  of 

the  word  is  njw  used  to  designate  Wight  and  the  coast  of  Hampshire, 

the  well-known  anchorage  olf  Deal,  entering  at  St.  Helen's,  and   com- 

inside  of  the  Goodwin.     See  Chron-  ing  out  at  the  Needles. 


THE    SHIPS    AT    COWES.  219 

Tuesday,  early  in  the  morning,  we  entered  the  chap. 

channel,  the  wind  being  weak  and  calm,  and  passed 

by  Portsmouth  very  slowly;  but  in  the  afternoon  ^^^^• 
the  wind  quickened,  and  we  were  forced  to  anchor  a  5^ 
little  on  this  side  Cowcastle  ;^  but  the  wind  growing 
more  favorable,  we  weighed  and  came  to  anchor 
again  right  against  Cowcastle,  thinking  to  stay  that 
night,  the  wind  being  very  calm.  Here  I  and  my 
wife,  and  my  daughter  Mary,  and  two  maids,  and 
some  others  with  us,  obtained  of  the  master  of  the 
ship  to  go  ashore  to  refresh  us  and  to  wash  our 
linens  ;  and  so  we  lay  at  Cowes~  that  night.  But 
the  wind  turning  when  we  were  absent,  they  hoisted 
sail  and  left  us  there,  and  anchored  eight  miles  fur- 
ther, over  against  Yarmouth,^  about  eight  of  the 
clock  at  night. 

Wednesday,  betime  in  the  morning,  the  shallop  6. 
was  sent  from  the  ship  to  fetch  us  to  Yarmouth. 
But  the  water  proved  rough,  and  our  women  desired 
to  be  set  on  shore  three  miles  short  of  Yarmouth  ; 
and  so  went  on  foot  by  land,  and  lodged  in  Yarmouth 
that  night. 

On  Thursday  and  Friday,   there  master  Beecher,^   7,  8. 

<> 

'  A  small  castle,  in  the  form  of  a  name,  with  his  wife's,    Christian, 

crescent,  was  built  at  West  Cowes,  stands  second  on  the  list  of  those 

on  each  side  of  the  river  Medina,  in  wlio   subscribed  the  covenant  of  the 

the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.    The  part  church  in  that  place,  Nov.  2,  1632, 

on  the  west  side  still  remains.     See  having  been  dismissed  for  that  pur- 

Parl.  Gaz.  i.  517.  pose  from  Boston  church,  Oct.  14. 

^  See  note  '  on  page  127.  He  was  one  of  the  first  selectmen  of 

^  Yarmouth    is    in    the    Isle    of  Charlestown,   and  was    one  of  its 

Wight.  representatives  at  the  first  Court  of 

■*  Thomas  Beecher  commanded  Deputies  held  May  14,  1634,  and 
the  same  vessel,  the  Talbot,  in  again  in  1635  and  1636.  In  May, 
Winthrop's  fleet,  the  next  year.  1635,  he  was  appointed  by  the  Gen- 
He  was  one  of  the  early  members  of  eral  Court  captain  of  the  fort  at  Cas- 
the  church  in  Boston,  and  was  ad-  tie  Island.  He  died  in  1637.  See 
mitted  a  freeman  Nov.  6,  1632.  Col.  Rec.  i.  150 ;  Savage's  Win- 
He  settled  in  Charlestown,  and  his  throp,  i.  2,  ii.  363  ;    Frothingham's 


220  THE    SHIPS    AT    YARMOUTH. 


XI 
1629 


CHAP,  allowed  by  the  Company,^  gave  me  forty  shillings  to 
make  our  provision  of  what  things  we  would  for  the 
voyage. 

^9^^  Saturday,  we  went  to  board  again  ;  and  this  day 
we  had  two  other  men  pressed  to  serve  the  King's 
ship  ;  but  we  got  one  again  by  entreaty. 

10.  The  Sabbath,  next  day,  we  kept  the  ship,  where  I 
preached  in  the  morning,  and  in  the  afternoon  was 
entreated  to  preach  at  Yarmouth  ;  where  Mr.  Meare 
and  Captain  Borley^  entertained  us  very  kindly,  and 
earnestly  desired  to  be  certified  of  our  safe  arrival  in 
New-England,  and  of  the  state  of  the  country.^ 

11.  Monday  morning,  blew  a  fair  wind  from  east  south- 
east ;  and  the  Lion's  Whelp  having  taken  in  all  her 
provision  for  passengers,  about  three  of  the  clock  in 
the  afternoon  we  hoisted  sail  for  the  Needles,^  and 
by  God's  guidance  safely  passed  that  narrow  passage 
a  little  after  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  ;  and  being 
entered  into  the  sea,  from  the  top  of  the  mast  w^e 
discerned  four  sail  of  ships  lying  southward  from  us. 
But  night  coming  on,   we  took  in  our  long-boat  and 

Hist,  of  Charlestown,  p.  80  ;  Bud-  tain  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  time,  and 

ington's  Hist,    of  First  Church  in  being   taken    prisoner   at  sea,    was 

Charlestown,  pp.  33,  184.  kept  prisoner  in  Spain  three  years. 

'  The   Company  of  Adventurers  Himself  and  three  of  his  sons  were 

for   New-England,  who  had  made  captains  in  Roe's  voyage."     Win- 

the   Agreement  with  the  ministers,  throp,  i.  4.     Burleigh  was  probably 

Skelton   charged  the  Company  £2  a  Puritan. 

10s.  for  the  expenses  he  incurred  at  ^  It  was  partly,  perhaps,  to  grat- 

Tilbnry,  Cowes,  and  Yarmouth,  he-  ify  them,  that  Higginson  vn-ote  this 

ing  wind-bound.    See  Felt's  Salem,  Journal  of  his  Voyage  and  his  New- 

i,  511.  England's  Plantation.     See  p.  214. 

*  "  Captain  Burleigh,  captain  of  '•  The  Needles'  channel  is  so  call- 
Yarmouth  castle,  a  grave,  comely  ed  from  the  sharp  rocks,  which,  at 
gentleman,  and  of  great  age,  came  the  western  extremity  of  the  Isle  of 
aboard  us,  and  stayed  breakfast  ;  Wight,  shoot  up  like  needles.  The 
and  offering  us  much  courtesy,  he  sharp-pointed  granite  peaks  in  the 
departed,  our  captain  giving  him  neighbourhood  of  Mont  Blanc  are 
four  shot  out  of  the  forecastle  for  his  called  Aiguilles,  or  Needles, 
farewell.     He  was  an  old  sea-cap- 


FAREWELL    TO    ENGLAND.  221 

shallop,  and   the  next  day  we  had  a  fair  gale  of  east-  ^^^p- 

erly  wind,  that  brought   us   towards  night  as  far  as 

the  Lizard.  ^^^^' 

May 

Wednesday,  the  wind  still  holding  easterly,  we  is. 
came  as  far  as  the  Land's  End,  in  the  utmost  part  of 
Cornwall,  and  so  left  our  dear  native  soil  of  England 
behind  us  ;^  and  sailing  about  ten  leagues  further, 
we  passed  the  isles  of  Scilly,  and  launched  the  same 
day  a  great  way  into  the  main  ocean.  And  now  my 
wife  and  other  passengers  began  to  feel  the  tossing 
waves  of  the  western  sea,  and  so  were  very  sea-sick. 
And  this  is  to  be  noted,  that  all  this  while  our  pas- 
sage hath  been  upon  the  coast  of  England,  and  so 
ought  truly  to  be  accounted  the  first  day  of  our  part- 
ing with  Old  England. 

Thursday  the  same  easterly  wind  blew  all  day  and     14. 
night,  and  the  next  day,-  so  that  some  of  the  seamen     is. 
thought  we  were  come  by   this  time  two  hundred 
leagues  from  England  ;  but  toward   night  the  wind 
was  calm. 

Saturday  we  were  becalmed  all  day.     This  day     le. 
met  us  a  little  ship  of  Bristol,  that  came  from  Chris- 
topher islands.^ 

^  Cotton  Mather  says,  that  "when  ruptions  in  it.     But  we  go  to  prac- 

they  came  to  the  Land's  End,  Mr.  tise  the  positive  part  of  church  re- 

Higginson,  calling  up  his  children  formation,  and  propagate  the  Gospel 

and  other  passengers  unto  the  stern  in  America.'     And  so  he  concluded 

of  the  ship,  to  take  their  last  sight  4^'ith  a  fervent  prayer  for  the  King, 

of  England,  said,  '  We  will  not  say,  and  Church,  and  State,  in  England, 

as  the  Separatists  were  wont  to  say  and  for  the  presence  and  blessing  of 

at  their  leaving  of  England,  Fare-  God  with  themselves  in  their  present 

well,  Babylon  !     Farewell,  Rome!  undertaking  for  New-England."  — 

But   we   will   say.   Farewell,    dear  See  INLather's  Magnalia,  i.  328. 

England  I    Farewell,  the  Church  of  *  "  That  every  thing  approaching 

God  in  England,  and  all  the  Christ-  to  an  acknowledgment  of  the  author- 

ian  friends  there  !    We  do  not  go  to  ity  of  the  Pope,  and  his  power  of 

New-England  as  Separatists   from  canonization,  might  be  avoided,  they 

the  Church  of  England  ;  though  we  never   used  the    addition  of    Saint 

cannot  but  separate   from  the  cor-  when  they  spoke  of  the  Apostles  and 


1629. 


222  THE    FIRST    SABBATH    AT    SEA. 

Sabbath,  being  the  first  Lord's  day  we  held  at  sea, 
was  very  cahn,  especially  in  the  morning.  But  we 
were  disturbed  in  our  morning  service  by  the  ap- 

17.  proach  of  a  Biscayner's  ship,  a  man-of-war,  that 
made  towards  us,  and  manned  out  his  boat  to  view 
us  ;  but  finding  us  too  strong  for  him,  he  durst  not 
venture  to  assault  us,  but  made  off. 

This  day  my  two  children,  Samuel  and  Mary,  be- 
gan to  be  sick  of  the  small  pox  and  purples  together, 
which  was  brought  into  the  ship  by  one  Mr.  Browne, 
which  was  sick  of  the  same  at  Gravesend  ;  whom  it 
pleased  God  to  make  the  first  occasion  of  bringing 
that  contagious  sickness  among  us,  wherewith  many 
were  after  afflicted. 

18.  Monday  calm  still,  the  wind  being  north-west, 
blowing  a  little  towards  evening,  but  contrary  to  our 
course. 

19.  Tuesday  wind  south-west,  as  little  helpful  as  the 
former,  and  blowing  very  weak.  This  day  the  mas- 
ter of  our  ship,  myself  and  another,  went  aboard  the 
Lion's  Whelp,  where  Mr.  Gibbs^  made  us  welcome 
with  bountiful  entertainment.  And  this  day,  towards 
night,  my  daughter  grew  sicker,  and  many  blue  spots 
were  seen  upon  her  breast,  which  affrighted  us.  At 
the  first  we  thought  they  had  been  the  plague  tokens ; 
but  we  found  afterwards  that  it  was  only  a  high  mea- 
sure of  the  infection  of  th§  pocks,  which  were  struck 
again   into  the  child  ;   and  so  it  was  God's  will  the 


the  ancient  Fathers  of  the  Christian  which    Saint   had  been   prefixed." 

church  ;  and  even  the  usual   names  Hutchinson,   Hist,  of  Mass.  i.  429. 

of  places   were   made   to   conform,  .See  also  note  ^  on  page  138  ;  Win- 

The  island  of  St.  Christopher's  was  throp,  i.  60,  ii.  33. 

always  written  Christopher's,  and,  '  John  (Jibbs  was  captain  of  ihe 

by  the  same  rule,  all  olher  places  to  Lion's  Whelp.     See  page  172. 


MARY    HIGGINSOX    DIES.  223 

child  died  about  five  of  the  clock  at  night,  being  the  chap. 


XI. 


1629, 


first  in  our  ship  that  was  buried  in  the  bowels  of  the 
great  Atlantic  sea  ;  which,  as  it  was  a  grief  to  us 
her  parents,  and  a  terror  to  all  the  rest,  as  being  19^ 
the  beginning  of  a  contagious  disease  and  mortality, 
so  in  the  same  judgment  it  pleased  God  to  remember 
mercy  in  the  child,  in  freeing  it  from  a  world  of  mis- 
ery, wherein  otherwise  she  had  lived  all  her  days. 
For  being  about  four  years  old,  a  year  since,  we 
know  not  by  what  means,  swayed^  in  the  back,  so 
that  it  was  broken,  and  grew  crooked,  and  the  joints 
of  her  hips  were  loosed,  and  her  knees  went  crook- 
ed, pitiful  to  see.  Since  which  time  she  hath  had 
a  most  lamentable  pain  in  her  belly,  and  would  oft- 
times  cry  out  in  the  day  and  in  her  sleep  also,  "  My 
belly!"  which  declared  some  extraordinary  distem- 
per. So  that  in  respect  of  her  we  had  cause  to  take 
her  death  as  a  blessing  from  the  Lord  to  shorten  her 
misery. 

Wednesday  a  wet  morning.  The  wind  was  west  20. 
south-west,  and  in  the  afternoon  north-west  and  by 
w^est,  both  being  contrary  to  our  course,  which  was 
to  sail  west  and  by  south.  Thus  it  pleased  God  to 
lay  his  hand  upon  us  by  sickness  and  death  and  con- 
trary winds  ;  and  stirred  up  some  of  us  to  make  the 
motion  of  humbling  ourselves  under  the  hand  of  God 
by  keeping  a  solemn  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  unto 
God,  to  beseech  him  to  remove  the  continuance  and 
further  increase  of  these  evils  from  us  ;  Avhich  was 
willingly  condescended  unto,  as  a  duty  very  fitting 
and  needful  for  our  present  state  and  condition. 

'  Drawn  to  one  side. 


224  A    FAST    KEPT    ON    BOARD. 

Thursday,  there  being  two  ministers  in  the  ship, 
Mr.  Smith  ^  and  myself,  we  endeavoured,  together 
with  others,  to  consecrate  the  day  as  a  solemn  fast- 
ing and  humiliation  to  Almighty  God,  as  a  further- 
ance of  our  present  work.  And  it  pleased  God  the 
ship  was  becalmed  all  day,  so  that  we  were  freed 
from  any  incumbrance.  And  as  soon  as  we  had  done 
prayers,  (see  and  behold  the  goodness  of  God !) 
about  seven  o'clock  at  night  the  wind  turned  to 
north-east,  and  we  had  a  fair  gale  that  night  as  a 
manifest  evidence  of  the  Lord's  hearing  our  prayers. 
I  heard  some  of  the  mariners  say,  they  thought  this 
was  the  first  sea-fast  that  ever  was  kept,  and  that 
they  never  heard  of  the  like  performed  at  sea  before. 

22.  Friday  the.  wind  fair,  and  east  northerly,  and  for 
our  purpose  for  New-England.  It  did  blow  strongly, 
and  carried  us  on  amain  with  tossing  waves,  which 
did  affright  them  that  were  not  wonted  to  such 
sights. 

23.  Saturday  the  same  wind  blowing,  but  more  gently. 
Now  we  were  comforted  with  hope  of  my  son  Sam- 
uel's recovery  of  the  pox. 

24.  The  second  Lord's  day,  a  fair  day,  an  orderly 
wind,  and  prosperous. 

25.  On  Monday  a  fair,  firm  gale,  the  wind  south  south- 
west. 

Tuesday,  about  ten  of  the  clock  in  the  morning, 
whilst  we  were  at  prayers,  a  strong  and  sudden  blast 
came  from  the  north,  that  hoisted  up  the  waves,  and 
tossed  us  more  than  ever  before,  and  held  us  all  the 
day  till  towards  night,  and  then  abated  by  little  and 

'  Ralph   Smith.     See   note  *  on  page  151. 


26 


A    TERRIBLE    STORM.  225 

little  till  it  was  calm.  This  day  Mr.  Goffe's  great  chap. 
dog^  fell  overboard,  and  could  not  be  recovered.  ^ — -^ 
Wednesday  the  wind  still  north,  and  calm  in  the  1629. 
morning  ;  but  about  noon  there  arose  a  south  wind  g'? 
which  increased  more  and  more,  so  that  it  seemed  to 
us,  that  are  landmen,  a  sore  and  terrible  storm  ;  for 
the  wind  blew  mightily,  the  rain  fell  vehemently,  the 
sea  roared,  and  the  waves  tossed  us  horribly  ;  be- 
sides, it  was  fearful  dark,  and  the  mariners'  mate 
was  afraid,  and  noise  on  the  other  side,  with  their 
running  here  and  there,  loud  crying  one  to  another 
to  pull  at  this  and  that  rope.  The  waves  poured 
themselves  over  the  ship,  that  the  two  boats  were 
filled  with  water,  that  they  were  fain  to  strike  holes 
in  the  midst  of  them  to  let  the  water  out.  Yea,  by 
the  violence  of  the  waves  the  long-boat's  cord,  which 
held  it,  was  broken,  and  it  had  like  to  have  been 
washed  overboard,  had  not  the  mariners,  with  much 
pain  and  danger,  recovered  the  same.  But  this  last- 
ed not  many  hours,  after  which  it  became  a  calmish 
day.  All  which  while  I  lay  close  and  warm  in  my 
cabin,  but  far  from  having  list  to  sleep,  with  Jonah  ;  "^l*"^''' 
my  thoughts  were  otherwise  employed,  as  the  time 
and  place  required.  Then  I  saw  the  truth  of  the 
Scriptures,  Psalm  cvii.  from  the  23d  to  the  32d  ;  and 
my  fear  at  this  time  was  the  less,  when  I  remember- 
ed what  a  loving  friend  of  mine,  a  minister,  accus- 
tomed to  sea-storms,  said  to  me,  that  I  might  not  be 

^  Why  Mr.  Goffe's  great  dog  was  tery  gi-ave,  has  thus  hecome  indisso- 

sent  over  to  the  Colony,  it  is  difficult  luhly  connected  with  the  liistory  of 

to  surmise,  unless   it  was  to  defend  the  Colony,  as  much  ns  the   Deputy 

the  sheep  from  the  wolves.     There  Governor  himself,  and  they  will  go 

is  a  naivete  in  relating  this  incident,  down   to  posterity  together.      See 

which    is  quite    noticeable.       Mr.  note  ^  on  page  70. 
Goffe's  great  dog,  buried  in  his  wa- 

15 


226  ANOTHER    FAST    KEPT. 

CHAP,  dismayed  at  such  storms,  for  they  were  ordinary  at 

sea,  and  it  seldom  falls  out  that  a  ship  perisheth  at^ 

^^^^'  them  if  it  have  sea-room  ;  which  I  the  rather  write, 
21.    that  others  as  well    as  myself,  by  the   knowledge 

hereof,    may   be  encouraged  and   prepared  against 

these  ordinary  sea-storms. 

28.  Thursday,  south  wind  ;   calm  at  night. 

29.  On  Friday  a  boisterous  wind,  blowing  cross,  but 
was  allayed  towards  night  with  a  shower  of  rain. 

30.  Saturday,  south-west  wind,  but  fair  and  quiet. 

31.  Sabbath  day,  being  the  third  Lord's  day,  fair  and 
calm.  We  saw  abundance  of  grampus  fishes,^  two 
or  three  yards  long,  and  a  body  as  big  as  an  ox. 

June  Monday,  the  wind  westerly  and  calm.  But  be- 
sides our  being  stayed  by  contrary  winds,  we  began 
to  find  the  temperature  of  the  air  to  alter  and  to  be- 
come more  sultry  and  subject  to  unwholesome  fogs. 
For  coming  now  to  the  height  of  the  Western  Isl- 
ands, some  of  our  men  fell  sick  of  the  scurvy,  and 
others  of  the  small  pox,  which  more  and  more  in- 
creased ;  yet,  thanks  be  to  God,  none  died  of  it  but 
my  own  child  mentioned.  And  therefore,  according 
to  our  great  need,  we  appointed  another  fast  for  the 
next  day. 
2.  Tuesday,  we  solemnly  celebrate"  another  fast. 
The  Lord  that  day  heard  us  before  we  prayed,  and 
gave  us  answer  before  we  called  ;  for  early  in  the 
morning  the  wind  turned  full  east,  being  as  fit  a 
wind  as  could  blow  ;  and  sitting  at  my  study  on  the 
ship's  poop,  I  saw  many  bonny  fishes^  and  porpoises^ 

'  At  for  in  or  hy.  *  The   porpoise,    {delphinus  pho- 

^  See    Chronicles  of  Plymouth,     rmia,)  of  the  cetacean  class  of  the 

note  *  on  page  152.  Mammalia,   porcopcsce,    Ital.,  porc- 

^  Boiiilos.  poisson,  Fr.,  hog-fish,  Eng.     It  is 


HALF-WAY    TO    NEW-ENGLAND.  227 

pursuing  one  another,  and  leaping  some  of  them  a  chap. 

yard  above  the  water.     Also,  as  we  were  at  prayer  • ■ 

under  the  hatch,  some  that  were  above  saw  a  whale  ^^^^• 
puffing  up  water  not  far  from  the  ship.     Now  my 
wife  was  pretty  well  recovered  of  her  sea-sickness. 

Wednesday  a  fair  day,  and  fine  gale  of  full  east  3- 
wind.  This  day  myself  and  others  saw  a  large  round 
fish  sailing  by  the  ship's  side,  about  a  yard  in  length 
and  roundness  every  way.  The  mariners  called  it  a 
sun-fish.^  It  spreadeth  out  the  fins  like  beams  on 
every  side,  four  or  five. 

Thursday  and  Friday  the  w^ind  full  east.  We  4, 5. 
were  carried  with  admiration  on  our  journey.  By 
this  we  were  more  than  half  way  to  New-England. 
This  day  I  saw  a  fish  very  strange  to  me,  (they  call 
it  a  carvel,)  which  came  by  the  ship's  side,  wafting 
along  the  top  of  the  water.  It  appeared  at  the  first 
like  a  bubble  above  the  water,  as  big  as  a  man's 
fist ;  but  the  fish  itself  is  about  the  bigness  of  a  man's 
thumb  ;  so  that  the  fish  itself  and  the  bubble  resem- 
bleth  a  ship  with  sails,  which  therefore  is  called  a 
carvel.^ 

Saturday  wind  direct  east  still.  6. 

The  fourth  Sabbath  we  kept  at  sea.     The  wind     7. 
full   easterly  till   noon,  and  then  it  came  full  south- 
so  called  from  the  supposed  resein-        ^  Carvel  is  a  Spanish  name  for  a 
blance  of  its  projecting  snout  to  that    light   vessel   without  decks.      The 
of  the  hog.  See  Griffith's  Cuvier,  iv.     fish  which  resembled  it,  was  proba- 
453  ;  Sliaw"s  Zoology,  ii.  504  ;  Nat-     bly  the  Physalia,   called  by  sadors 
uralists'  Library,  Mammalia,  vi.  222.     the  Portuguese  man-of-war,   a  mo- 
'  A  species  of  Acalepha;,  Medusa    luscous  animal,  w' hich  has  a  large 
or  Cyanea,  familiarly  know'n  under     air-bag  to  aid  its  swimming,  and  a 
the  names  of  sea-jellies  and  sea-net-    comb  or  crest,  which  answers  as  a 
ties.     The  fins  here  mentioned  are     sail.    See  Griflith's  Cuvier,  xii.  490, 
its  tentacles.    See  Griffith's  Cuvier,     569-571  ;    Chronicles  of  Plymouth, 
xii.  482,  562-569;  Gould's  Report    note  *  on  page  86. 
of  the  Invertebrata  of  Massachusetts, 
p.  347. 


228  ON    THE    BANK    OF    NEWFOUNDLAND. 

CHAP,  east,  a  strong  gale  that  night  and  the  next  day  till 

night. 

1629.      Tuesday  the  same  wind  held  till  nine  o'clock  in 

9.  the  morning,  and  then  a  great  shower,  which  lasted 
till  about  seven  at  night,  and  then  it  was  a  very  calm. 
Here  we  sounded  with  a  deep-lead^  line  above  a 
hundred  fathom,  and  found  no  bottom.  This  day 
we  saw  a  fish  called  a  turtle,  a  great  and  large  shell- 
fish, swimming  above  the  w^ater  near  the  ship. 

10.  Wednesday  wind  northerly,  a  fine  gale,  but  calm- 
ish  in  the  afternoon. 

11-  Thursday,  the  wind  at  north,  an  easy  gale  and 
fair  morning.  We  saw  a  mountain  of  ice,  shining  as 
white  as  snow,  like  to  a  great  rock  or  cliff  on  the 
shore.  It  stood  still,  and  therefore  w^e  thought  it  to 
be  on  ground,^  and  to  reach  the  bottom  of  the  sea ; 
for  though  there  came  a  mighty  stream  from  the 
north,^  yet  it  moved  not  ;  which  made  us  sound, 
and  we  found  a  bank^  of  forty  fathom  deep,  where- 
upon we  judged  it  to  rest,  and  the  height  above  was  as 
much.  We  also  saw  six  or  seven  pieces  of  ice  float- 
ing on  the  sea,  which  was  broken  off  from  the  former 
mountain.  We  also  saw  great  store  of  water-fowl 
swimming  by  the  ship  within  musket  shot,  of  a  pied 

'  The  deep-sea-lead,  spelt  dipled  '  This  was  the  tide,  or  the  strong' 

in   the   manuscript,  and   commonly  current  that  runs  counter  to  the  Gulf 

pronounced  6?tps«/-lead,  weighs  from  Stream,    from  the  Banks  of  New- 

11  to  18  or  20  pounds,  and  the  deep-  fuundland  to  Cape  Florida, 

sea-line    is  from  90  to  1 10  f  ithoms.  "•  They  were  now  on  the  eastern 

See  Dana's  Seaman's  Friend,  page  edge  of  the   Grand  Bank  of  New- 

17.  foundland,     which      extends    from 

"  These  icebergs  are   frequently  about  the  latitude  of  42°  to  50°,  or 

grounded  in  40  and  50  fathoms  \va-  upwards.    About  the  latitude  of  45", 

ter,  and  in  foggy  weather  their  vi-  its  breadth  is  nearly  four  degrees, 

cinity  may  be  known  by  the  intense  To  the  northward  and  southward  it 

coldness  they   diffuse,   and  by   the  narrows  almost  to  a  point,  and  seems 

roar  of  the  waters  breaking  against  insensibly  to   drop   into   fathomless 

them.  water. 


FOGGY    WEATHER.  229 

color,  and  about  the  bio:ness  of  a  wild  duck,  about  chap, 

XI 

forty  in  a  company ;  the  mariners  call  them  hag-birds/  ^ 

Toward  night  came  a  fog,  that  the  Lion's  Whelp  was  1629. 
lost  till  morning.     And  now  we  saw  many  bonitos, 
porpoises,  and  grampuses,  every  day  more  and  more. 

Friday  foggy  and  calmish,  the  wind  northerly  in  the     12. 
morning,  but  about  noon  it  came  south-east,  a  dainty 
loom-gale, ~  which  carried  us  six  leagues  a  watch. 

Saturday   the   same  wind  till   night,  and  we  saw     13. 
great  store  of  porpoises  and  grampuses. 

The  fifth  Sabbath,  the  same  wind.     Tow^ards  noon    11. 
it  began  to  be  foggy,  and  then  it  rained  till  night. 
We  went  four  or  five  leagues  a  watch. 

Monday  a  fair  day,  but  foggy ;  the  same  wind  15. 
blowing,  but  with  fresh  gales,  carried  us  seven 
leagues  a  watch.  In  the  afternoon  it  blew  harder, 
so  the  sea  was  rough,  and  we  lost  the  sight  of  the 
Lion's  Whelp.  It  being  foggy,  we  drummed  for 
them,  and  they  shot  off  a  great  piece  of  ordnance  ; 
but  we  heard  not  one  another. 

Tuesday  wind  south  and  by  east  ;  foggy  till  about  le. 
10  o'clock.  While  we  were  at  prayers,  it  cleared 
up  about  an  hour,  and  then  we  saw  the  Lion's  Whelp 
distant  about  two  leagues  southward.  We  presently 
tacked  about  to  meet  her,  and  she  did  the  same  to 
meet  us  ;  but  before  we  could  get  together,  a  thick 
fog  came,  that  we  were  long  in  finding  each  other. 
This  day  we  sounded  divers  times,  and  found  our- 
selves on  another  bank,^  at  first  forty  fathom,  after 


'  Probably  a  species  of  the  Mer-  ^  A  gentle,  easy  gale  of  wind,  in 

ganser.    The  approach  to  the  Banks  whicli  a  ship  can  carr}^  her  topsails, 

may  be  known  by  the  appearance  of  ^  "  On  the  western  side   of  the 

numerous  sea-fowls,  such  as  guille-  Great  Bank,  and  to   the  southward 

mots  and  divers,  of  the  island  of  Newfoundland  and 


230  FIRST    SIGHT    OF    LAND. 

CHAP,  thirty-six,  after  thirty-three,  after  twenty-four.    We 

thought   it   to  have  been  the  bank  over  against  Cape 

^^^^-  Sable,  but  we  were  deceived  ;  for  we  knew  not  cer- 

T 

16.  tainly  where  we  were,  because  of  the  fog.  After 
three  or  four  hours'  company  we  lost  the  Lion's 
Whelp  again,  and  beat  our  drum  and  shot  off  a  great 
piece  of  ordnance,  and  yet  heard  not  of  them.  But 
perceiving  the  bank  to  grow  still  the  shallower, 
we  found  it  twenty-seven  and  twenty-four  fathoms. 
Therefore,  being  a  fog,  and  fearing  we  were  too  near 
land,  we  tacked  about  for  sea-room  for  two  or  three 
watches,  and  steered  south-east. 

17.  Wednesday  very  foggy  still,  and  wind  south  and 
by  west  ;  and  sounding,  found  no  bottom  that  we 
could  reach. 

18.  Thursday  wind  full  west,  and  contrary  to  us.  This 
day  a  notorious  wicked  fellow,  that  was  given  to 
swearing  and  boasting  of  his  former  wickedness, 
bragged  that  he  had  got  a  wench  with  child  before 
he  came  this  voyage,  and  mocked  at  our  days  of  fast, 
railing  and  jesting  against  Puritans  ;  this  fellow  fell 
sick  of  the  pocks,  and  died.  We  sounded  and  found 
thirty-eight  fathom,  and  stayed  for  a  little  to  take 
some  codfish,  and  feasted  ourselves  merrily. 

19.  Friday,  wind  Avest  still,  a  very  fair,  clear  day. 
About  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  some  went  up  to 
the  top  of  the  mast,  and  affirmed,  to  our  great  com- 
fort, they  saw  land  to  the  north-eastward. 

20.  Saturday  wind  south-west,  a  fair  gale.    We  sound- 


Nova  Scotia,  a  chain  of  banks  ex-  depths,  from  20  to  70  fathoms,  ad- 
tends  almost  two  degrees  from  the  mirably  situated,  in  dark  weather, 
land.  These  are  called  Green  Bank,  to  warn  the  mariner  of  his  approach 
Banquereau,  Sable  Island  Bank,  &c.  towards  the  land."  Blunt's  Ameri- 
AU  these  have  soundings  of  various  can  Coast  Pilot,  p.  12. 


CAPE    SABLE    IN    SIGHT.  231 

ed  and  found  forty,  thirty,  twenty-two,  and  a  little  chap. 
after  no  ground. 

Sabbath,  being  the  sixth  Lord's  day,  wind  west- 
erly, but  fair  and  calm. 

Monday,  wind  easterly,  a  fair  gale.  This  day  we 
saw  a  great  deal  of  froth  not  far  from  us.  We  feared 
it  might  be  some  breach  of  water  against  some  [  ]} 
Therefore  the  master  of  our  ship  hoisted  out  the 
shallop,  and  went  with  some  of  the  men  to  see  what 
it  was  ;  but  found  it  only  to  be  a  froth  carried  by  the 
stream. 

Tuesday  the  wind  north-east,  a  fair  gale.  This  23 
day  we  examined  five  beastly  Sodomitical  boys  which 
confessed  their  wickedness,  not  to  be  named.  The 
fact  was  so  foul,  we  referred  them  to  be  punished  by 
the  Governor,  when  we  came  to  New-England, 
wlio  afterwards  sent  them  back  to  the  Company, 
to  be  punished  in  Old  England,  as  the  crime  de- 
served.^ 

Wednesday,  wind  north-east,  a  fair  day  and  clear.  24. 
About  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  we  espied  a  ship 
about  four  leagues  behind  us,  which  proved  the 
Lion's  Whelp,  which  had  been  a  week  separated 
from  us  ;  we  stayed  for  her  company.  This  day  a 
child  of  goodman  Black's,^  which  had  a  consumption 
before  it  came  to  ship,  died.  This  day  we  had  all  a 
clear  and  comfortable  sight  of  America,  and  of  the 
Cape  Sable,  that  was  over  against  us  seven  or  eight 

^  Here   are   two   words  which  I  ^  See  pages  90  and  93. 

cannot   deciplier.      They  look  like  ^  Tlas  man's  name  was  probably 

ned  grales.     The  copyist  puts  a  star  Blake.     The  name   of  that  ancient 

over  them,  seeming  to  intunate  that  and  respectable  family,  ihe  Blakes 

he  could  not  make  them  out.    Hutch-  of  Dorchester,  is  usually  found  writ- 

inson  has  it  rocks.    But  no  such  word  ten  Black  in  old  family  papers  and 

is  to  be  found  in  the  MS.  records. 


232  CAPE    ANN    IN    SIGHT. 

CHAP,  leagues  northward.    Here  we  saw  yellow  gilliflowers 

> — ■ — '  on  the  sea. 

1629.  Thursday  wind  still  north-east,  a  full  and  fresh 
25.  gale.  In  the  afternoon  we  had  a  clear  sight  of  many 
islands  and  hills  by  the  sea-shore.  Now  we  saw 
abundance  of  mackerel,  a  great  store  of  great  whales 
puffing  up  water  as  they  go  ;  some  of  them  came 
near  our  ship.  Their  greatness  did  astonish  us  that 
saw  them  not  before  ;  their  backs  appeared  like  a 
little  island.  At  five  o'clock  at^  night  the  wind 
turned  south-east,  a  fair  gale.  This  day  we  caught 
mackerel. 
20.  Friday  a  foggy  morning,  but  after  clear,  and  wind 
calm.  We  saw  many  schools  of  mackerel,^  infinite 
multitudes  on  every  side  of  our  ship.  The  sea  was 
abundantly  stored  with  rockweed  and  yellow  flowers, 
like  gilliflowers.  By  noon  we  were  within  three 
leagues  of  Cape  Ann  f  and  as  we  sailed  along  the 
coasts,  we  saw  every  hill  and  dale  and  every  island 
full  of  gay  woods  and  high  trees.  The  nearer  we 
came  to  the  shore,  the  more  flowers  in  abundance, 
sometimes  scattered  abroad,  sometimes  joined  in 
sheets  nine  or  ten  yards  long,  which  we  supposed 
to  be  brought  from  the  low  meadows  by  the  tide. 
Now  what  with  fine  woods  and  green  trees  by  land, 


^  Here  the  MS.  ends  ;  and  for  the  be  rapidly  declining.     Thus  in  the 

rest  of  the  Journal  I  am  ol)liged  to  year  ending  April  1,  1837,  the  num- 

rely  upon  Hutchinson,  who  used  the  ber  of  barrels  caught  was  23 1,059, 

MS.  when  it  was  entiie.     See  his  valued  at  $  1,639,402,  whilst  hi  tlic 

Collection,  p.  42.  year    ending    April    1,    1845,    the 

*  The  spring  mackerel  appear  on  number  was  only  86,628,  valued  at 

the  coast  of  Massachusetts  about  the  .9637,052.     Compare  the  Statistical 

end  of  May,  and  towards  the  middle  Tables  of  the  Industry  of  INIassachu- 

of  June  tlipy  become  very  plentiful,  setts  for  those  years,  and  see  Sto- 

The  numbers  taken,  however,  vary  rer's  Report  on  the  Fishes  of  Mas- 

exceedingly  from  year  to  year,  and  sachusetts,  p.  41. 

upon  the  whole  the  fishery  seems  to  ^  See  page  22. 


ARRIVAL    IN    CAPE    ANN    HARBOUR.  233 

and  these  yellow  flowers^  painting  the  sea,  made  us  chap. 

all  desirous  to  see  our  new  paradise  of  New-Eng 

land,   whence   we  saw  such   forerunning  signals  of  i^^^- 
fertility  afar  oflf.^     Coming  near  the  harbour  towards     26. 
night,  we  tacked  about  for  sea-room. 

Saturday  a  foggy  morning  ;  but  after  eight  o'clock  27. 
in  the  morning  very  clear.  The  wind  being  some- 
what contrary  at  south  and  by  west,  we  tacked  to 
and  again  with  getting  little,  but  with  much  ado. 
About  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  having  with 
much  pain  compassed  the  harbour,  and  being  ready 
to  enter  the  same,  (see  how  things  may  suddenly 
change  !)  there  came  a  fearful  gust  of  wind  and  rain 
and  thunder  and  lightning,  whereby  we  were  borne 
with  no  little  terror  and  trouble  to  our  mariners, 
having  very  much  ado  to  loose  down  the  sails  when 
the  fury  of  the  storm  struck  us.^  But,  God  be  prais- 
ed, it  lasted  but  a  while,  and  soon  abated  again. 
And  hereby  the  Lord  showed  us  what  he  could  have 
done  with  us,  if  it  had  pleased  him.  But,  blessed  be 
God,  he  soon  removed  this  storm,  and  it  was  a  fair 
and  sweet  evening. 

We  had  a  westerly  wind,  which  brought  us,  be- 
tween five  and  six  o'clock,  to  a  fine  and  sweet  har- 
bour, seven  miles  from  the  head  point ^  of  Cape  Ann. 
This  harbour  twenty  ships  may  easily  ride  therein  ;^ 

*  These  may  have  heen  hutter-  Cape  Cod  !     See  Chronicles  of  Ply- 
cups,  which  had  heen  washed  from  mouth,  pp.  104-106. 
the  shore,  and  become  mixed  with  ^  In    Hutchinson,    "  held    up  ;" 
rock-weed,  kelp,    and  tangle  ;    or,  which  is  unquestionably  an  error, 
more  probably,  a  species  of  animal  ■*  By  the  head-point  I  suppose  he 
plants,    Actinim,    sea-anemones    or  means   the  part  of  the    Cape    near 
fixed    sea-nettles.       See    GrifRth"s  Thacher's  Island. 
Cuvier,  xii.  494,  519,.  '"  The  outer  harbour  will  contain 

^  How   different   was  this   scene  400  ships,  and  the  inner  harbour  200 

from  that  which  met  the  eyes  of  the  fishing-vessels.     It  is  an  excellent 

Pilgrims,  in  November,  1620,  when  harbour,  and  well  protected,  except 

they  made  the  opposite  headland  of  from  a  south-west  storm. 


234  ARIIIVAL    AT    NAIMKECK. 

CHAP,  where  there  was  an  island,^  whither  four  of  our  men 

XI. 

with  a  boat  went,  and  brought  back  again  ripe  straw- 
berries and  gooseberries,  and  sweet  single  roses.^ 
Thus  God  was  merciful  to  us  in  giving  us  a  taste  and 
smell  of  the  sweet  fruit  as  an  earnest  of  his  bountiful 
goodness  to  welcome  us  at  our  first  arrival.  This  har- 
bour was  two  leagues  and  something  more  from  the 
harbour  at  Naimkecke,"^  where  our  ships  were  to  rest, 
and  the  Plantation  is  already  begun.  But  because 
the  passage  is  difficult,  and  night  drew  on,  we  put 
into  Cape  Ann  harbour. 

28.  The  Sabbath,  being  the  first  we  kept  in  America, 
and  the  seventh  Lord's  day  after  we  parted  with 
England. 

29.  Monday  we  came  from  Cape  Ann  to  go  to  Naim- 
kecke,  the  wind  northerly.  I  should  have  told  you 
before,  that,  the  planters  spying  our  English  colors, 
the  Governor'*  sent  a  shallop  with  two  men  on  Satur- 
day to  pilot  us.  These  rested  the  Sabbath  with  us 
at  Cape  Ann  ;  and  this  day,  by  God's  blessing  and 
their  directions,  we  passed  the  curious  and  difficult 
entrance  into  the  large,  spacious  harbour  of  Naim- 
kecke.  And  as  we  passed  along,  it  was  wonderful 
to  behold  so  many  islands,^  replenished  with  thick 
wood  and  high  trees,  and  many  fair,  green  pastures. 
And   being    come   into    the   harbour,    we    saw  the 

^  Ten-pound    Island,    on    which  a  full    topographical   description  of 

there  is  now  a  light-house.  which   may    be  seen    in   Bentley's 

*  The  sweet  briar.  Gooseberries  Histoiy  of  Salern,  in  Mass.  Hist, 
are  still  found  on  the  island,  and  be-  Co  1.  \i.  219-222.  See  also  13ow- 
fore  it  was  cleared  up,  wild  straw-  ditch's  Chart  of  the  Harbouis  of 
berries  were  also  obtained  there.  Salem,    Beverly,    Marblehead    and 

^  The  distance  from  Gloucester  to  Manchester,  and  the  accurate  and 
Salem  harbour  is  about  nine  miles.       beautifnl    Map    of    Massachusetts, 

*  Kiidicott.  made  by  order  of  the  Legislature  in 

*  Baker's  Island,  (ireat  and  Little     1844. 
,        Miseries,  Coney  Island,  and  others, 


THE    VOYAGE    FORTY-FIVE    DAYS    LONG.  235 

George  to  our  great  comfort,  there  being  come  on  chap. 

Tuesday,   which  was   seven  days  before    us.      We 

rested  that  night  with  glad  and  thankful   hearts  that  1629. 
God  had  put  an  end  to  our  long  and  tedious  journey      09^ 
through  the  greatest  sea  in  the  world. 

The  next  morning  the  Governor  came  aboard  to     so. 
our  ship,  and  bade  us  kindly  welcome,   and  invited 
me  and  my  wife  to  come  on  shore  and  take  our  lodg- 
ing in  his  house  ;^  which  we  did  accordingly. 

Thus  you  have  a  faithful  report,  collected  from 
day  to  day,  of  all  the  particulars  that  were  worth 
noting  in  our  passage. 

Now  in  our  passage  divers  things  are  remarkable. 

First,  through  God's  blessing,  our  passage  was 
short  and  speedy  ;  for  whereas  we  had  a  thousand 
leagues,  that  is,  three  thousand  miles  English,  to  sail 
from  Old  to  New  England,  we  performed  the  same 
in  six  weeks  and  three  days. 

Secondly,  our  passage  was  comfortable  and  easy 
for  the  most  part,  having  ordinarily  fair  and  moderate 
wind,  and  being  freed  for  the  most  part  from  stormy 
and  rough  seas,  saving  one  night  only,  which  we  that 
were  not  used  thought  to  be  more  terrible  than  in- 
deed it  was  ;  and  this  was  Wednesday  at  night, 
May  27th. 

Thirdly,  our  passage  was  also  healthful  to  our 
passengers,  being  freed  from  the  great  contagion  of 
the  scurvy  and  other  maledictions,^  which  in  other 
passages  to  other  places  had  taken  away  the  lives  of 


*  Higgiiison  says,  in  another  place,  that  it  was  "  a  fair  house,  newly- 
built  for  the  Governor." 
^  Maladies,  diseases. 


June. 


236  THE    VOYAGE    A    HEALTHFUL    ONE. 

CHAP.  many.  And  yet  we  were,  in  all  reason,  in  wonder- 
-^-^^  ful  danger  all  the  way,  our  ship  being  greatly  crowd- 
1629.  ej  ^yi|-jj  passengers  ;  but,  through  God's  great  good- 
ness, we  had  none  that  died  of  the  pox  but  that 
wicked  fellow  that  scorned  at  fasting  and  prayer. 
There  were  indeed  two  little  children,  one  of  my  own, 
and  another  beside ;  but  I  do  not  impute  it  merely  to 
the  passage,  for  they  were  both  very  sickly  children, 
and  not  likely  to  have  lived  long,  if  they  had  not  gone 
to  sea.  And  take  this  for  a  rule,  if  children  be  health- 
ful when  they  come  to  sea,  the  younger  they  are  the 
better  they  will  endure  the  sea,  and  are  not  troubled 
with  sea-sickness  as  older  people  are,  as  we  had  ex- 
perience in  many  children  that  went  this  voyage. 
My  wife,  indeed,  in  tossing  weather,  was  something 
ill  by  vomiting  ;  but  in  calm  weather  she  recovered 
again,  and  is  now  much  better  for  the  sea-sickness.^ 
And  for  my  own  part,  whereas  I  have  for  divers 
years  past  been  very  sickly,  and  ready  to  cast  up 
whatsoever  I  have  eaten,  and  was  very  sick  at  Lon- 
don and  Gravesend,  yet  from  the  time  I  came  on 
shipboard  to  this  day  I  have  been  strangely  health- 
ful.^ And  now  I  can  digest  our  ship  diet  very  well, 
which  I  could  not  when  I  was  at  land.  And  indeed 
in  this  regard  I  have  great  cause  to  give  God  praise, 
that  he  hath  made  my  coming  to  be  a  method  to  cure 
me  of  a  wonderful  weak  stomach  and  continual  pain 
of  melancholy  wind  from  the  spleen.  Also  divers 
children  were  sick  of  the  small  pox,  but  are  safely 
recovered  again ;   and  two  or  three  passengers,  to- 

^  She   lived  till  1G40,  in   which         '  Yet  he  died  in   August  of  tlie 

year  she   died,   at  New  Haven,  in  next  year,  —  of  a  hectic   fever,  ac- 

(Vonncclicut.     See  note  ^  on  page  cording  to  Hotton  Mather.     See  the 

211.  Magiiaha,  i.  3:21). 


THE  VOYAGE  PLEASANT  AND  PROFITABLE.       237 

wards  the  latter  end  of  the  voyage,  fell  sick  of  the  chap. 
scurvy,  but  coming  to  land  recovered  in  a  short  time.  - — -^-- 

Fourthly,  our  passage  was  both  pleasurable  and  1629. 
profitable.  For  we  received  instruction  and  delight 
in  beholding  the  wonders  of  the  Lord  in  the  deep 
waters,  and  sometimes  seeing  the  sea  round  us  ap- 
pearing with  a  terrible  countenance,  and,  as  it  were, 
full  of  high  hills  and  deep  valleys  ;  and  sometimes  it 
appeared  as  a  most  plain  and  even  meadow.  And 
ever  and  anon  we  saw  divers  kinds  of  fishes  sporting 
in  the  great  waters,  great  grampuses  and  huge 
whales,  going  by  companies,  and  puffing  up  water 
streams.  Those  that  love  their  own  chimney-corner, 
and  dare  not  go  far  beyond  their  own  town's  end, 
shall  never  have  the  honor  to  see  these  wonderful 
works  of  Almighty  God. 

Fifthly,  we  had  a  pious  and  Christian-like  passage ; 
for  I  suppose  passengers  shall  seldom  find  a  company 
of  more  religious,  honest  and  kind  seamen  than  we 
had.  We  constantly  served  God  morning  and  even- 
ing by  reading  and  expounding  a  chapter,  singing, 
and  prayer.  And  the  Sabbath  was  solemnly  kept, 
by  adding  to  the  former,  preaching  twice  and  cate- 
chising. And  in  our  great  need  we  kept  two  solemn 
fasts,  and  found  a  gracious  effect.  Let  all  that  love 
and  use  fasting  and  praying,  take  notice  that  it  is  as 
prevailable  by  sea  as  by  land,  wheresoever  it  is  faith- 
fully performed.  Besides,  the  shipmaster  and  his  com- 
pany used  every  night  to  set  their  eight  and  twelve 
o'clock  watches  with  singing  a  psalm,  and  prayer 
that  was  not  read  out  of  a  book.^     This  I  write  not 

'  That  is,  extempore,  according  Justin  Martyr  says,  the  officiating 
to  the  mode  of  the  early  Clu-istians.     minister  in  the  public  worship  of  the 


238 


END    OF    HIGGINSON  S    VOYAGE. 


CHAP,  for  boasting  and  flattery,  but  for  the  benefit  of  those 

that  have  a  mind  to  come  to  New-England  hereafter, 

^^^^'  that  if  they  look  for  and  desire  to  have  as  prosperous 
""^*  a  voyage  as  we  had,  they  may  use  the  same  means 
to  attain  the  same.' 

So  letting  pass  our  passage  by  sea,  we  will  now 
bring  our  discourse  to  land,  on  the  shore  of  New- 
England;  and  I  shall,  by  God's  assistance,  endeavour 
to  speak  nothing  but  the  naked  truth,  and  both  ac- 
quaint you  with  the  commodities  and  discommodities 
of  the  country.- 


primitive  church,  "  offered  prayers 
and  thaiiksfTiviiifjs  according  to  his 
ability."  See  his  Second  Apolonry, 
towards  the  end,  Opera,  p.  98,  (ed. 
Cologne,  1086.)  Origen,  too,  con- 
tra Celsum,  Ub.  viii.  pp.  386,  402, 
says  the  same  thing  ;  and  Tertullian 
in  his  Apol.,  cap.  30,  says,  "  We 
pray  without  a  prompter,  because 
our  prayers  flow  from  our  own 
minds  :  sine  monitorc,  quia  dc  pec- 
tore  oramus."  Opera,  v.  80,  (ed. 
Semler.) 

^  It  appears  from  page  214,  that 
this  Journal    was    "written    from 


New-England,  July  24,  1G29,"  and 
was  undoubtedly  sent  home  on  the 
return  of  tlie  Talbot  and  Lion's 
Whelp,  which  arrived  in  England 
bef(n-c  Sept.  19.     See  page  90. 

^  The  principal  part  of  the  pre- 
ceding Journal  is  printed  from  an 
old  MS.,  which,  though  not  the 
original,  is  unquestionably  a  very 
early  copy.  It  was  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Hutchinson,  but  not  of 
Prince.  It  is  now  the  property  of 
the  Massachusetts  Historical  Soci- 
ety.    See  page  232. 


FRANCIS  HIGGINSON'S 
NEW-ENGLAND'S   PLANTATION. 


New-Englands  Plantation.  Or  a  Short  and  Trve  Description 
of  tlie  Commodities  and  Discommodities  of  that  Countrey.  Writ- 
ten by  Mr.  Higgeson,^  a  reuerend  Diuine  now  there  resident. 
Whereunto  is  added  a  Letter,  sent  by  Mr.  Graues,  an  Enginere, 
out  of  New- En  gland.      The  third  Edition.,  enlarged. 

London.  Printed  by  T.  and  R.  Cotes  for  Michael  Sparke,  dwell- 
ing at  the  Signe  of  the  Blew  Bible  in  Greene  Arbor.  1G30. 
sm.  4to.  pp.  25. 


^  Mr.  Higginson's  name  does  not 
appear  on  the  title-page  of  the  first 
edition,  printed  the  same  year  ;  nor 
is  Graves's  Letter  printed  in  that 
edition.  I  have  both  editions  before 
mo,  loaned  me  by  Edward  A.Crown- 
inshield,  Esq.  of  Boston.  That  they 
were  actually  distinct  editions,  and 
not   merely  different  in  their   title- 


pages,  is  demonstrated  by  the  colla- 
tion of  the  volumes,  by  which  it  ap- 
pears that  the  typographical  errors 
of  the  first  edition  are  not  to  be 
found  in  the  third.  The  appearance 
of  three  editions  of  this  pamphlet  in 
the  course  of  a  year,  shows  the  in- 
terest with  which  the  infant  Planta- 
tion was  regarded  in  England. 


TO    THE    READER. 


Reader, 

Do  not  disdain  to  read  this  Relation;  and  igso, 
look  not  here  to  have  a  large  gate,  and  no  building 
within,  a  full-stuffed  title,  with  no  matter  in  the 
book.  But  here  read  the  truth ;  and  that  thou  shalt 
find  without  any  frothy,  bombasting  words,  or  any 
quaint,  new-devised  additions,  only  as  it  was  written 
(not  intended  for  the  press)  by  a  reverend  divine 
now  there  living,  who  only  sent  it  to  some  friends^ 
here  which  were  desirous  of  his  Relations  ;  which  is 
an  epitome  of  their  proceedings  in  the  Plantation. 
And  for  thy  part,  if  thou  meanest  to  be  no  planter 
nor  venturer,  do  but  lend  thy  good  prayers  for  the 
furtherance  of  it.  And  so  I  rest  a  well-wisher  to  all 
the  good  designs  both  of  them  which  are  gone,  and 
of  them  that  are  to  go.^ 

M.  S.2 


^  Among  them  were  Isaac  John-  •  This  indicates  that  the  first  edi- 

son  and  Increase  Nowell,  who  was  tion  of  the  book  was  printed  before 

a  rehitive,  besides  his  parishioners  at  the  saihng  of  Winthrop's  fleet,  that 

Leicester,  and  the  persons  who  treat-  is,  before  April. 

ed  hini  so  kindly  at  Yarmouth.  See  ^  The  initials  of  Michael  Sparke, 

pages  65  and  220.  the  publisher.     See  page  240. 
16 


CHAPTER   XII. 


new-england's  plantation.^ 


CHAP.      Letting  pass  our  voyage  by  sea,~  we  will  now 

« — -^  begin  our  discourse  on  the  shore  of  New-England. 

16  29.  j^^^  because  the  life  and  welfare  of  every  creature 
to     here  below,  and  the  commodiousness  of  the  country 

^^P'*  whereas  such  creatures  live,  doth,  by  the  most  wise 
ordering  of  God's  providence,  depend,  next  unto 
himself,  upon  the  temperature  and  disposition  of  the 
four  elements.  Earth,  Water,  Air,  and  Fire,  (for  as 
of  the  mixture  of  all  these  all  sublunary  things  are 
composed,  so  by  the  more  or  less  enjoyment  of  the 
wholesome  temper  and  convenient  use  of  these  con- 
sisteth  the  only  well  being  both  of  man  and  beast 
in  a  more  or  less  comfortable  measure  in  all  coun- 
tries under  the  heavens,)   therefore  I  will  endeavour 

'  This  Relation  was  pvobaljly  sent  *  It  is  evident  from  page  238,  that 

home  on  the  return  of  the  Four  Sis-  this  Narrative  was  a  continuation  of 

ters  and  Mayflower,  wliich  arrived  the   Journal   of  the  Voyage.     But 

in  England  before  Nov.  20th.     Of  the  Journal,  it  seems,  was  not  deem- 

course   it  covers    a   space    of   only  ed   of  sufficient    importance  to    be 

about  three  months,  from  the  first  printed  with  it,  and  was  accordingly 

of  July  to  the  middle  or  end  of  Sep-  omitted,  and  was  never  subsequently 

tember.     See  pages  107  and  210.  printed  in  England. 


THE    SOIL    OF   NEW-ENGLAND.  243 

to  show  you  what  New-England  is,  by  the  consider-  chap. 
ation  of  each  of  these  apart,  and  truly  endeavour,  by  ^^ — ^ 
God's  help,  to  report  nothing  but  the  naked  truth,  ig29, 
and  that  both  to  tell  you  of  the  discommodities  as     "o^ 
well  as  of  the  commodities.    Though,  as  the  idle  pro-  ^^P^- 
verb  is,   "  Travellers  may  lie  by  authority,"   and  so 
may  take  too  much  sinful  liberty  that  way,  yet  I  may 
say  of  myself,  as  once  Nehemiah  did  in  another  case, 
"Shall  such  a  man  as  I  lie  ?"    No,   verily.     It  be- 
cometh  not  a  preacher  of  truth  to  be  a  writer  of 
falsehood  in  any  degree  ;^  and  therefore  I  have  been 
careful  to  report  nothing  of  New-England  but  what  I 
have  partly  seen  with  mine  own  eyes,   and  partly 
heard  and  inquired  from  the  mouths  of  very  honest 
and  religious  persons,^  who  by  living  in  the  country 
a  good  space  of  time  have  had  experience  and  know- 
ledge of  the  state  thereof,  and  whose  testimonies  I 
do  believe  as  myself. 


First  therefore  of  the  Earth  of  New-England,  and  all 
the  appurtenances  thereof. 

It  is  a  land  of  divers  and  sundry  sorts  all  about 
Masathulets^  Bay,  and  at  Charles  river  is  as  fat  black 
earth  as  can  be  seen  anywhere  ;   and  in  other  places 


'  And  yet  he  was  accused  of  ex-  son's  installation  on  the  6th  of  Aug. 

aggerating   the   advantages   of   the  and  with  whom  he  then  had  ample 

country.    See  Dudley's  letter  to  the  opportunity  to  confer.  See  Morton's 

Countess  of  Lincoln,  in  a  subsequent  Memorial,  p.  14G,  and  Prince's  An- 

part  of  this  volume.  nals,  p.  263. 

*  Conant  and  his  associates  ;  per-  ^  So  spelt  in  the  original ;  possi- 

haps,  also,  Gov.  Bradford  and  others  bly  a  typographical  error,  although 

from  the  Colony  of  New-Plymouth,  it  is  spelt  four  times  afterwards  in 

who  came  to  Salem  as  messengers  the  same  manner, 
from  the  church  to  attend  Higgin- 


244  MUCH    CLEARED    GROUND. 

CHAP,  you  have  a  clay  soil,  in  other  gravel,  in  other  sandy, 
as  it  is  all  about  our  Plantation  at  Salem,  for  so  our 
town  is  now  named. ^ 

The  form  of  the  earth  here,  in  the  superficies  of  it, 
is  neither  too  flat  in  the  plainness,  nor  too  high  in 
hills,  but  partakes  of  both  in  a  mediocrity,  and  fit 
for  pasture  or  for  plough  or  meadow  ground,  as  men 
please  to  employ  it.  Though  all  the  country  be,  as 
it  were,  a  thick  wood  for  the  general,  ye*:  in  divers 
places  there  is  much  ground  cleared  by  the  Indians,^ 
and  especially  about  the  Plantation  ;  and  I  am  told 
that  about  three  miles  from  us  a  man  may  stand  on 
a  little  hilly  place  and  see  divers  thousands  of  acres 
of  ground  as  good  as  need  to  be,  and  not  a  tree  in  the 
same.  It  is  thought  here  is  good  clay  to  make  brick 
and  tiles  and  earthen  pots,  as  need  to  be.  At  this 
instant  we  are  setting  a  brick-kiln  on  work,  to  make 
bricks  and  tiles  for  the  building  of  our  houses.  For 
stone,  here  is  plenty  of  slates  at  the  Isle  of  Slate^  in 
Masathulets  Bay,  and  limestone,  freestone,  and 
smooth-stone,  and  iron-stone,  and  marble-stone^  also 
in  such  store,  that  we  have  great  rocks  of  it,  and  a 
harbour  hard  by.  Our  Plantation  is  from  thence 
called  Marble-harbour.'' 


*  See  pages  12  and  31.  the  trade   of  fishintr.     There    was 

^  See  Chronicles  of  Plymouth,  pp.  made  here  a  ship's  loading  offish 

124,  167  and  206.  the  last  year,  where  still   stand  the 

'  This  Isle  of  Slate  and  the  mar-  stages    and   drying   scaffolds."     In 

ble-stone  have  never  yet  been  found.  Professor  Sevvall's  oration,  delivered 

■*  A  name  nearly  resembling  this,  in  17G9   at  the  funeral  of  the  Rev. 

now  belongs  to  a«  adjoining  town,  Edward  Ilolyoke,  President  of  Har- 

which  in  1619  was  set  off  from  Sa-  vard  College,  who  had  once  been  a 

lem.    Wood,  wiio  was  here  in  1633,  minister  in  that  town,  it  is  thus  gra- 

says,  in  his  New-England's   Pros-  phically  described  :   "  Marmaracria, 

pect,  part  i.  ch.  10,  "  Marvilhead  is  oppidum    maritimum,    saxis    abun- 

a  place  whicli   lieth  four  miles  full  dans,    inde     N^v-anglice       dictum 

south   from  Salem,   and  is   a  very  Marblehead ;    asperrima  vox,  aurcs 

convenient   place   for   a  plantation,  Latinas  horride  perstringens."    Sec 

especially  for  such  as  will  set  upon  Muss,  Hist.  Coll.  viii.  54. 


WONDERFUL    FERTILITY    OF    THE    SOIL.  245 

Of  minerals  there  hath  yet  been  but  little  trial  chap. 

XIL 

made,  yet  we  are  not  without  great  hope  of  being  

furnished  in  that  soil.  1629. 

The  fertility  of  the  soil  is  to  be  admired  at,  as  ap-  ^J 
peareth  in  the  abundance  of  grass  that  groweth  every  ^^P^* 
where,  both  very  thick,  very  long,  and  very  high  in 
divers  places.  But  it  groweth  very  wildly,  with  a 
great  stalk,  and  a  broad  and  ranker  blade, ^  because 
it  never  had  been  eaten  with  cattle,  nor  mowed  with 
a  scythe,  and  seldom  trampled  on  by  foot.  It  is 
scarce  to  be  believed  how  our  kine  and  goats,^ 
horses  and  hogs  do  thrive  and  prosper  here,  and  like 
well  of  this  country. 

In  our  Plantation  we  have  already  a  quart  of  milk 
for  a  penny.  But  the  abundant  increase  of  corn 
proves  this  country  to  be  a  wonderment.  Thirty, 
forty,  fifty,  sixty,  are  ordinary  here.  Yea,  Joseph's 
increase  in  Egypt  is  outstripped  here  with  us.  Our 
planters  hope  to  have  more  than  a  hundredfold  this 
year.  And  all  this  while  I  am  within  compass ;  what 
will  you  say  of  two  hundred  fold,  and  upwards  ?  It 
is  almost  incredible  what  great  gain  some  of  our 
English  planters  have  had  by  our  Indian  corn.  Cred- 
ible persons  have  assured  me,  and  the  party  himself 
avouched  the  truth  of  it  to  me,  that  of  the  setting  of 
thirteen  gallons  of  corn  he  hath  had  increase  of  it 
fifty-two  hogsheads,  every  hogshead  holding  seven 
bushels  of  London  measure,  and  every  bushel  v.'as 
by  him  sold  and  trusted  to  the  Indians  for  so  much 

>  Probably    the    meadow    spear         ^  They  had  at  this    time  in  the 

grass  {poanervata),OT:  the  foul  mea-  Plantation  about   forty  cows,  and  as 

dow  grass.     See   Dewey's   Report  many  goats,  as  Higginson  himself 

on  the  Herbaceous  Plants  of  Mas-  informs  us  in  a  letter  at  the  end  of 

sachusetts,   p.  246,  and  Bigelow's  this  Relation. 
Plants  of  Boston  and  Vicinity,  p.  35. 


246        NATURAL  PRODUCTIONS  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

CHAP,  beaver  as  was  worth  ei2:liteen  shillin2;s  ;  and  so  of 

XII.  O         7 

' — -^  this  thirteen  gallons  of  corn,  which  was  worth  six 

1629.  shillings  eight  pence,  he  made  about  dG327  of  it  the 

^J    year  following,  as  by  reckoning  will  appear  ;  where 

Sept.  jQ^  jj^^y  ggg  jjQ^y  QqJ  blesseth  husbandry  in  this 

land.  There  is  not  such  great  and  plentiful  ears  of 
corn  I  suppose  any  where  else  to  be  found  but  in 
this  country,  being  also  of  variety  of  colors,  as  red, 
blue,  and  yellow,  &c.  ;^  and  of  one  corn  there 
springeth  four  or  five  hundred.  I  have  sent  you 
many  ears  of  divers  colors,  that  you  might  see  the 
truth  of  it. 

Little  children  here,  by  setting  of  corn,  may  earn 
much  more  than  their  own  maintenance. 

They  have  tried  our  English  corn  at  New  Ply- 
mouth Plantation,-  so  that  all  our  several  grains  will 
grow  here  very  well,  and  have  a  fitting  soil  for  their 
nature. 

Our  Governor  hath  store  of  green  pease  growing 
in  his  garden  as  good  as  ever  I  eat  in  England. 

This  country  aboundeth  naturally  with  store  of 
roots  of  great  variety  and  good  to  eat.  Our  turnips, 
parsnips  and  carrots  are  here  both  bigger  and  sweeter 
than  is  ordinarily  to  be  found  in  England.  Here  are 
also  store  of  pumpions,  cowcumbers,  and  other  things 
of  that  nature  which  I  know  not.  Also,  divers  excel- 
lent pot-herbs  grow  abundantly  among  the  grass,  as 
strawberry  leaves  in  all  places  of  the  country,  and 
plenty  of  strawberries  in  their  time,  and  penny-royal, 
winter-savory,   sorrel,   brooklime,  liverwort,  carvel. 


'  See    Chronicles    of  Pl3'mouth,         ^  Sec    Chronicles  of   Plymouth, 
note  '  on  p.  131,  and  note''  on  p.  lo'3  ;     pages  231  and  370. 
and  Dewey's  Kc]  ort,  p.  253. 


THE  PLANTS  AND  TREES  OF  NEW-ENGLAND.      247 

and  watercresses  ;   also  leeks  and  onions  are  ordi-  chap. 

xn. 
nary,    and  divers  physical  herbs. ^     Here    are   also 

abundance  of  other  sweet  herbs,  delightful  to  the  ^^^^• 

smell,   whose  names  we  know  not,   and  plenty  of     to 

single  damask  roses, ^  very  sw^eet  ;   and  two  kinds  of  ^^'^^' 

herbs   that  bear  two  kinds  of  flowers  very  sweet, 

which  they  say  are  as  good  to  make  cordage  or  cloth 

as  any  hemp  or  flax''  we  have. 

Excellent  vines  are  here  up  and  down  in  the 
woods.  Om-  Governor  hath  already  planted  a  vine- 
yard,"* with  great  hope  of  increase. 

Also,  mulberries,  plums,  raspberries,  currants, 
chestnuts,  filberts,  walnuts,  small-nuts,  hurtleber- 
ries,  and  haws  of  white-thorn,  near  as  good  as  our 
cherries  in  England,  they  grow  in  plenty  here. 

For  wood,  there  is  no  better  in  the  world,  I  think, 
here  being  four  sorts  of  oak,  diff"ering  both  in  the 
leaf,  timber,  and  color,  all  excellent  good.  There 
is  also  good  ash,  elm,  willow,  birch,  beech,  sassa- 
fras, juniper,  cypress,  cedar,  spruce,  pines  and  fir,^ 
that  will  yield  abundance  of  turpentine,  pitch,  tar, 
masts,  and  other  materials  for  building  both  of  ships 
and  houses.  Also  here  are  store  of  sumach*^  trees, 
that  are  good  for  dyeing  and  tanning  of  leather  ; 
likewise  such  trees  yield  a  precious  gum,  called 
white  benjamin,  that  they  say  is  excellent  for  per- 
fumes.    Also   here    be   divers   roots    and    berries, 

'  See   Chronicles   of    Plymouth,  port,  p.  83  ;   and  Bigelow's  Plants, 

pp.    132,   165,   and   234;   Dewey's  p.  13(3. 

Report,  p.  209.  ^  See  note  ^  on  page  152. 

^  The  sweet  briar  {rosa  ruUgi-  °  See    Chronicles   of  Plymouth, 
nosa.)       See   Chron.    Plym.    234  ;  pages  118,  124,  164,  165. 
Dewey's  Report,  p.  55  ;  and  Bige-  ®  See   page    133  ;   Dewey's   Re- 
low's  Plants,  p.  209.  port,  p.  200  ;  and  Bigelow's  Plants, 

^  See    Chronicles  of    Plymouth,  page  125. 
note  *  on  page  166  ;    Dewey's  Re- 


248  THE    BEASTS    OF    NEW-ENGLAND. 

CHAP,  wherewith  the  Indians  die  excellent  holdina;  colors, 

XII.  .  ^ 

that  no  rain  nor  washing  can  alter.  Also  we  have 
materials  to  make  soap  ashes  and  saltpetre  in  abun- 
dance. 

For  beasts  there  are  some  bears,  and  they  say 
some  lions  ^  also  ;  for  they  have  been  seen  at  Cape 
Anne.  Also  here  are  several  sorts  of  deer,  some 
whereof  bring  three  or  four  young  ones  at  once, 
which  is  not  ordinary  in  England ;  also  wolves, 
foxes,  beavers,  otters,  martens,  great  wild  cats,  and 
a  great  beast  called  a  molke,~  as  big  as  an  ox.  I 
have  seen  the  skins  of  all  these  beasts  since  I  came 
to  this  Plantation,  excepting  lions.  Also  here  are 
great  store  of  squirrels,  some  greater,  and  some 
smaller  and  lesser  ;  there  are  some  of  the  lesser 
sort,  they  tell  me,  that  by  a  certain  skin  will  fly 
from  tree  to  tree,  though  they  stand  far  distant.^ 


Of  the  Waters  of  Neio- England,  with  the  things  belong- 
ins  to  the  same. 


"G 


New-England  hath  water  enough,  both  salt  and 
fresh.  The  greatest  sea  in  the  world,  the  Atlantic 
Sea,  runs  all  along  the  coast  thereof.  There  are 
abundance  of  islands  along  the  shore,  some  full  of 
wood  and  mast  to  feed  swine,   and  others  clear  of 

'  See    Chronicles  of   Plymouth,  ^  "The  third  kind   is  a  flying 

note  '  on  page  176.  squirrel,  which  is  not  very  big,  slen- 

^  Probably  an  error  of  the  press  dcr  of  body,   with  a  great  deal  of 

for  moose.      See  Josselyn's   New-  loose  skin,  which  she  spreads  square 

England's  Rarities,  p.  19  ;  Wood's  when   she   flies  ;    which   the    wind 

New-England's    Prospect,    part   i.  gets,  and  so  wafts  her  bat-like  body 

ch.  6  ;    and    Emmons's    Report   on  from  place  to  place."  Wood's  New- 

the  Quadrupeds  of  Massachusetts,  England's  Prospect,  ch.  6. 
pp. 74-78. 


ABUNDANCE  OF  SEA-FISH.  249 

wood,  and  fruitful  to  bear  corn.     Also  we  have  store  chap. 

of  excellent  harbours  for  ships,  as  at   Cape  Anne,  

and  at  Masathulets  Bay,   and  at   Salem,  and  at  many  I629. 
other  places  ;   and  they  are  the  better,  because  for    -^^^J 
strangers  there  is  a  very  difficult  and  dangerous  pas-   Sept. 
sage  into  them,  but  unto  such  as  are  well  acquainted 
with  them  they  are  easy  and  safe  enough. 

The  abundance  of  sea-fish  are  almost  beyond  be- 
lieving ;  and  sure  I  should  scarce  have  believed  it 
except  I  had  seen  it  with  mine  own  eyes.  I  saw  great 
store  of  whales,  and  grampuses,  and  such  abund- 
ance of  mackerels^  that  it  would  astonish  one  to  be- 
hold ;  likewise  codfish,  abundance  on  the  coast,  and 
in  their  season  are  plentifully  taken.  There  is  a  fish 
called  a  bass,^  a  most  sweet  and  wholesome  fish  as 
ever  I  did  eat ;  it  is  altogether  as  good  as  our  fresh 
salmon  ;  and  the  season  of  their  coming  was  begun 
when  we  came  first  to  New-England  in  June,  and  so 
continued  about  three  months'  space.^  Of  this  fish 
our  fishers  take  many  hundreds  together,  which  I 
have  seen  lying  on  the  shore,  to  my  admiration. 
Yea,  their  nets  ordinarily  take  more  than  they  are 
able  to  haul  to  land,  and  for  want  of  boats  and  men 
they  are  constrained  to  let  a  many  go  after  they  have 
taken  them  ;  and  yet  sometimes  they  fill  two  boats 
at  a  time  with  them.  And  besides  bass,  we  take 
plenty  of  scate   and  thornback,    and    abundance  of 


*  See  note  ^  on  page  232.  was  probably    sent  home   by    the 

*  The  striped  bass,  {labrax  linea-  Mayflower  or  Four  Sisters,  both  of 
tus.)  See  Wood,  ch.  9,  and  Sto-  which  reached  England  belbre  Nov. 
rer"s  Report  on  the  Fishes  of  Massa-  20,  and  had  brought  a  letter,  dated 
chusetts,  page  7.  the   5ih  of  September,   from  Gov. 

^  This  helps  us  to  fix  the  date  of  Endicott    and    others.     See    pages 

this  Relation.     It   was   not  written  107,  109  and  242. 
till  after  the  first  of  September,  and 


250  EXCELLENCE    OF    THE    WATER. 

lobsters,'  and  the  least  boy  in  the  Plantation  may 
both  catch  and  eat  what  he  will  of  them.  For  my 
own  part,  I  was  soon  cloyed  with  them,  they  were 
so  great,  and  fat,  and  luscious.  I  have  seen  some 
myself  that  have  weighed  sixteen  pound  ;  but 
others  have  had  divers  times  so  great  lobsters  as 
have  weighed  twenty-five  pound, ^  as  they  assured 
me. 

Also,  here  is  abundance  of  herring,  turbot,^  stur- 
geon, cusks,  haddocks,  mullets,  eels,  crabs,  muscles, 
and  oysters.^  Besides,  there  is  probability  that  the 
country  is  of  an  excellent  temper  for  the  making  of 
salt  ;  for,  since  our  coming,  our  fishermen  have 
brought  home  very  good  salt  which  they  found  can- 
died by  the  standing  of  the  sea-water  and  the  heat  of 
the  sun  upon  a  rock  by  the  seashore  ;  and  in  divers 
salt  marshes  that  some  have  gone  through,  they  have 
found  some  salt  in  some  places  crushing  under  their 
feet,  and  cleaving  to  their  shoes. 

And  as  for  fresh  water,  the  country  is  full  of  dainty 
springs,^  and  some  great  rivers,  and  some  lesser 
brooks  ;  and  at  Masathulets  Bay*^  they  digged  wells 
and  found  water  at  three  foot  deep  in  most  places ; 
and  near  Salem  they  have  as  fine  clear  water  as  we 

'  The  lobster,  {homarus  America-  ermen,   weighed  28  pounds.     See 

nus,)  the  largest  of  all  crustaceous  Gould's  Report,  page  360. 

animals,  is  found  about  all  the  isl-  ^  See    Chronicles    of  Plymouth, 

ands  in   IMassachusctts  Bay,  and   in  note  ^  on  page  164. 

every  cove  along  the  coast.   Probably  ■*  See    Wood,    ch.    9;    Morton's 

200,000  are  annually  taken  in  our  New-English   Canaan,  book  ii.  ch. 

waters,    one     half    of    which    are  7;  and  Gould's  Report,  pages  121, 

brought  to    Boston.      See   Gould's  135,  356,  300. 

Report  on  the  Invertebrate  Animals  ^  See    Chronicles  of   Plymouth, 

of  Massachusetts,  pp.  330  and  360.  note  *  on  page  129. 

^  Wood,  ch.  9,  mentions  "very  ®  AtCharlestown, whither  Graves 

large  ones,  some  being  20  pounds  had  already  gone.     See  note   ^   on 

in  weight."     The  largest  that  has  page  152. 
been  seen  of  late  by  the  Boston  fish- 


THE    AIR    OF    NEW-ENGLAND.  251 

can  desire,  and  we  may  dig  wells  and  find  water  chap. 
where  we  list.  -^ — — 

Thus  we  see  both  land  and  sea  abound  with  store  1629. 
of  blessings  for  the  comfortable  sustenance  of  man's   ^^^^ 
life  in  New-England.  ^^p^- 


Of  the  Air  of  New-England,  with  the  temper  and  crea- 
tures in  it. 

The  temper  of  the  air  ^  of  New-England  is  one  spe- 
cial thing  that  commends  this  place.  Experience 
doth  manifest  that  there  is  hardly  a  more  healthful 
place  to  be  found  in  the  world  that  agreeth  better 
with  our  English  bodies.  Many  that  have  been 
weak  and  sickly  in  Old  England,  by  coming  hither 
have  been  thoroughly  healed,  and  grown  healthful 
and  strong.  For  here  is  an  extraordinary  clear  and 
dry  air,  that  is  of  a  most  healing  nature  to  all  such 
as  are  of  a  cold,  melancholy,  phlegmatic,  rheumatic 
temper  of  body.  None  can  more  truly  speak  hereof 
by  their  own  experience  than  myself.  My  friends 
that  knew  me  can  well  tell  how  very  sickly  I  have 
been,  and  continually  in  physic,  being  much  troubled 
with  a  tormenting  pain  through  an  extraordinary 
weakness  of  my  stomach,  and  abundance  of  melan- 
cholic humors.  But  since  I  came  hither  on  this 
voyage,  I  thank  God  I  have  had  perfect  health,  and 
freed  from  pain  and  vomiting,  having  a  stomach  to 
digest  the  hardest  and  coarsest  fare,  who  before  could 
not  eat  finest  meat  ;  and  whereas  my  stomach  could 
only  digest  and  did  require  such  drink  as  was  both 

'  See  Chronicles  of  Plymouth,  pao-es  233,  369. 


252  THE    CLIMATE    OF   NEW-ENGLAND. 

CHAP,  strons:  and  stale,   now  I  can  and  do  oftentimes  drink 

XII. 

New-England  water  very  well.     And  I  that  have  not 

16  29.  gone  without  a  cap  for  many  years  together,  neither 
to^  dm'st  leave  off  the  same,  have  now  cast  away  my  cap, 
^^P^-  and  do  wear  none  at  all  in  the  day  time ;  and  whereas 
beforetime  I  clothed  myself  with  double  clothes  and 
thick  waistcoats  to  keep  me  warm,  even  in  the  sum- 
mer time,  I  do  now  go  as  thin  clad  as  any,  only 
wearing  a  light  stuff  cassock  upon  my  shirt,  and  stuff 
breeches  of  one  thickness  without  linings.  Besides, 
I  have  one  of  my  children,  that  was  formerly  most 
lamentably  handled  with  sore  breaking  out  of  both 
his  hands  and  feet  of  the  king's  evil ;  but  since  he 
came  hither  he  is  very  well  ever  he  was,  and  there 
is  hope  of  perfect  recovery  shortly,  even  by  the  very 
wholesomeness  of  the  air,  altering,  digesting,  and 
drying  up  the  cold  and  crude  humors  of  the  body  ; 
and  therefore  I  think  it  is  a  wise  course  for  all  cold 
complexions  to  come  to  take  physic  in  New-Eng- 
land ;  for  a  sup  of  New-England's  air  is  better  than 
a  whole  draught  of  Old  England's  ale. 

In  the  summer  time,  in  the  midst  of  July  and  Au- 
gust, it  is  a  good  deal  hotter  than  in  Old  England, 
and  in  winter  January  and  February  are  much  colder, 
as  they  say  ;  but  the  spring  and  autumn  are  of  a 
middle  temper. 

Fowls  of  the  air  are  plentiful  here,  and  of  all  sorts 
as  we  have  in  England,  as  far  as  I  can  learn,  and  a 
great  many  of  strange  fowls  which  we  know  not. 
Whilst  I  was  writing  these  things,  one  of  our  men 
brought  home  an  eagle  which  he  had  killed  in  the 
wood  ;  they  say  they  are  good  meat.  Also  here  are 
many  kinds  of  excellent  hawks,  both  sea  hawks  and 


THE    FOWLS    OF    NEW-ENGLAND.  253 

land  hawks  ;   and  myself  walking  in  the  woods  with  chap. 

another  in  company,   sprung  a  partridge^  so  big  that  

through  the  heaviness  of  his  body  could  fly  but  a  1^29. 
little  way  ;  they  that  have  killed  them  say  they  are  "o^ 
as  bis;  as  our  hens.  Here  are  likewise  abundance  of  ^^^^' 
turkeys^  often  killed  in  the  woods,  far  greater  than 
our  English  turkeys,  and  exceeding  fat,  sweet,  and 
fleshy ;  for  here  they  have  abundance  of  feeding  all 
the  year  long,  as  strawberries  (in  summer  all  places 
are  full  of  them)  and  all  manner  of  berries  and  fruits. 
In  the  winter  time  I  have  seen  flocks  of  pigeons,^ 
and  have  eaten  of  them.  They  do  fly  from  tree  to 
tree,  as  other  birds  do,  which  our  pigeons  will  not 
do  in  England.  They  are  of  all  colors,  as  ours  are, 
but  their  wings  and  tails  are  far  longer  ;  and  there- 
fore it  is  likely  they  fly  swifter  to  escape  the  terrible 
hawks  in  this  country.  In  winter  time  this  country 
doth  abound  with  wild  geese,  wild  ducks,''  and  other 
sea-fowl,  that  a  great  part  of  winter  the  planters 
have  eaten  nothing  but  roast  meat  of  divers  fowls 
which  they  have  killed. 


Thus  you  have  heard  of  the  Earth,  Water,  and  Air 
of  New-England.  Now  it  may  be  you  expect  some- 
thing to  be  said  of  the  Fire,  proportionable  to  the 
rest  of  the  elements. 

'  This,  no  doubt,  was  the  par-  ^  See  Josselyn's  JNTew-England's 

tridge  of  New-England,  the  pheasant  Earities,  p.  8  ;  Bonaparte's  Amer. 

of  the  middle  and  western   States,  Ornithol.    i.   79  ;    Audubon,    i.    1  ; 

(tretao  umbtilus.)     ^Vood  and  Mor-  Nuttall,  i.  039  ;  Peabody,  p.  352. 

ton  both  remark  that  they  are  bigger  ^  See  Wood,  ch.   8;   Wilson,  v. 

in  body  than  the  partridges  of  Eng-  102  ;  Audubon,  i.  319  ;  NuttalJ,  i. 

land.     See  Peabody 's  Report,  page  629  ;  Peabody's  Report,  p.  351. 

354 ;  Wilson's  Amer.   Ornithol.  vi.  ''  See    Chronicles  of   Plymouth, 

45 ;    Audubon's   Ornithol.    Biog.   i.  note  ^  on  page  139,  and  note  *  on 

211  ;  Nuttall,  i.  657.  page  liO. 


254  ABUNDANCE    OF    FUEL. 

CHAP.      Indeed  I  think  New-England  may  boast  of  this 
— ^ —  element  more  than  of  all  the  rest.     For  though  it  be 
1629.  jjgpg  somewhat  cold  in  the  winter,  yet  here  we  have 
t/   plenty  of  fire   to  warm  us,   and  that  a  great  deal 
Sept.  cheaper  than  they  sell  billets  and  fagots  in  London ; 
•  nay,  all  Europe  is  not  able  to  afford  to  make  so  great 
fires  as  New-England.     A  poor  servant  here,  that  is 
to  possess  but  fifty  acres  of  land,   may  afford  to  give 
more  wood  for  timber  and  fire  as  good  as  the  world 
yields,  than  many  noblemen  in  England  can  afford  to 
do.     Here  is  good  living  for  those  that  love  good 
fires.     And  although  New-England  have  no  tallow 
to  make  candles  of,   yet  by  the  abundance  of  the  fish 
thereof  it  can  afford  oil  for  lamps.     Yea,  our  pine 
trees,  that  are  the  most  plentiful   of  all  wood,  doth 
allow  us  plenty  of  candles,  which  are  very  useful  in 
a  house ;   and  they  are  such  candles  as   the  Indians 
commonly  use,  having  no  other  ;  and  they  are  no- 
thing else  but  the  wood  of  the  pine  tree  cloven  in 
two  little  slices  something  thin,  which  are  so  full  of 
the  moisture  of  turpentine  and  pitch  that  they  burn 
as  clear  as  a  torch. ^     I  have  sent  you  some  of  them, 
that  you  may  see  the  experience  of  them. 


Thus  of  New-England's  commodities.  Now  I  will 
tell  you  of  some  discommodities,  that  are  here  to  be 
found. 

First,  in  the  summer  season,  for  these  three 
months,  June,  July,   and  August,^  we   are  troubled 

'  Pine-knots.  "  Out  of  these  pines  is  gotten  the  candle-wood,  that  is  so 
much  spoken  of."     Wood,  ch.  5. 
^  See  note  '  on  page  219. 


THE    INCONVENIENCES    OF    THE    COUNTRY.  255 

much  with  little  flies  called  mosquitoes,^  being  the  chap. 

same  they  are  troubled  with  in  Lincolnshire  and  the  

fens  ;   and  they  are  nothing  but  gnats,  which,  except  ^^^^• 
they  be  smoked  out  of  their  houses,  are  troublesome     t"o^ 
in  the  night  season.  ®P*' 

Secondly,  in  the  w^inter  season,  for  two  months' 
space,  the  earth  is  commonly  covered  with  snow, 
which  is  accompanied  with  sharp  biting  frosts,  some- 
thing more  sharp  than  is  in  Old  England,  and  there- 
fore are  forced  to  make  great  fires. 

Thirdly,  this  country  being  very  full  of  woods  and 
wildernesses,  doth  also  much  abound  with  snakes 
and  serpents,  of  strange  colors  and  huge  greatness. 
Yea,  there  are  some  serpents,  called  rattlesnakes j*^ 
that  have  rattles  in  their  tails,  that  will  not  fly  from 
a  man  as  others  will,  but  will  fly  upon  him  and  sting 
him  so  mortally  that  he  will  die  within  a  quarter  of 
an  hour  after,  except  the  party  stinged  have  about 
him  some  of  the  root  of  an  herb  called  snake-weed^ 
to  bite  on,  and  then  he  shall  receive  no  harm.  But 
yet  seldom  falls  it  out  that  any  hurt  is  done  by  these. 
About  three  years  since  an  Indian  was  stung  to  death 
by  one  of  them ;  but  we  heard  of  none  since  that  time. 

Fourthly  and  lastly,  here  wants  as  yet  the  good 
company  6i  honest  Christians,  to  bring  with  them 
horses,  kine  and  sheep,  to  make  use  of  this  fruitful 
land.  Great  pity  it  is  to  see  so  much  good  ground 
for  corn  and  for  grass  as  any  is  under  the  heavens, 
to  lie  altogether  unoccupied,  when  so  many  honest 
men  and  their  families  in  Old  England,  through  the 


'  See  Wood,  ch.  11  ;  and  Harris's        "  See  Josselyn,  p.  38  ;    Morton, 
Report  on  the  Insects  of  Massachu-    ch.  5  ;  Wood,  ch.  11. 
etts,  page  401.         *  ^  See  Wood,  ch.  11. 


256  THE    NATIVES    OF    NEW-ENGLAND. 

popiilousness  ther 
one  by  the  other. 


CHAP,  popiilousness  thereof,  do  make  very  hard  shift  to  live 


Now  thus  you  know  what  New-England  is,  as  also 
with  the  commodities  and  discommodities  thereof. 
Now  I  will  show  you  a  little  of  the  inhabitants^ 
thereof,  and  their  government. 

For  their  governors  they  have  kings,  which  they 
call  saggamores,  some  greater  and  some  lesser,  ac- 
cording to  the  number  of  their  subjects.  The  greater 
saggamores  about  us  cannot  make  above  three  hun- 
dred men,  and  other  less  saggamores  have  not  above 
fifteen  subjects,  and  others  near  about  us  but  two. 

Their  subjects,  about  twelve  years  since,^  were 
swept  away  by  a  great  and  grievous  plague  that  was 
amongst  them,  so  that  there  are  very  few  left  to  in- 
habit the  country. 

The  Indians  are  not  able  to  make  use  of  the  one 
fourth  part  of  the  land  ;  neither  have  they  any  set- 
tled places,  as  towns,  to  dwell  in  ;  nor  any  ground 
as  they  challenge  for  their  own  possession,  but 
change  their  habitation  from  place  to  place. 

For  their  statures,  they  are  a  tall  and  strong- 
limbed  people.  Their  colors  are  tawny.  They  go 
naked,  save  only  they  are  in  part  covered  with 
beasts'  skins  on  one  of  their  shoulders,  and  wear 
something  before  their  privities.  Their  hair  is  gen- 
erally black,  and  cut  before,  like  our  gentlewomen, 

'  For   the  Indians  of  New-Eng-  1-20;  and  Daniel  Gooldn  and  Roger 

land,    see     Edward     Winslow,    in  Williams    in    Mass.   Hist.   Coll.   i. 

Chronicles  of  Plymouth,  pp.    351-  111-226,  and  iii.  203-238. 

o67 ;  Wood's  New-England's  Tros-  Mu    1G17.     See    Chronicles    of 

pect,  part  ii.  chaps.  1-20  ;  Morton's  Plymouth,  note  ^  on  page  183. 

New-English  Canaan,  book  i.  chaps.  * 


THE    NATIVES    OF    NEW-ENGLAND.  257 

and  one  lock  lonarer  than  the  rest,  much  like  to  our  chap. 

xn. 
gentlemen,  which  fashion  I  think  came  from  hence 

into  England.  1629. 

For  their  weapons,  they  have  bows  and  arrows,  ^J 
some  of  them  headed  with  bone,  and  some  with  brass.  ^^P** 
I  have  sent  you  some  of  them  for  an  example. 

The  men,  for  the  most  part,  live  idly ;  they  do 
nothing  but  hunt  and  fish.  Their  wives  set  their 
corn,  and  do  all  their  other  work.  They  have  little 
household  stuff,  as  a  kettle,  and  some  other  vessels 
like  trays,  spoons,  dishes  and  baskets. 

Their  houses^  are  very  little  and  homely,  being 
made  with  small  poles  pricked  into  the  ground,  and 
so  bended  and  fastened  at  the  tops,  and  on  the  sides 
they  are  matted  with  boughs  and  covered  on  the  roof 
with  sedge  and  old  mats  ;  and  for  their  beds  that 
they  take  their  rest  on,  they  have  a  mat. 

They  do  generally  profess  to  like  well  of  our  com- 
ing and  planting  here  ;  partly  because  there  is  abun- 
dance of  ground  that  they  cannot  possess  nor  make 
use  of,  and  partly  because  our  being  here  will  be 
a  means  both  of  relief  to  them  when  they  want, 
and  also  a  defence  from  their  enemies,^  wherewith 
(I  say)  before  this  Plantation  began,  they  were  often 
endangered. 

For  their  religion,  they  do  worship  two  Gods,  a 
good  God  and  an  evil  God.  The  good  God  they 
call  Tantum,  and  their  evil  God,  whom  they  fear 
will  do  them  hurt,  they  call  Squantum. 

For  their  dealing  with  us,  we  neither  fear  them 

'  See    Chronicles   of  Plymouth,  borders    of   the    Penobscot.       See 

note  *  on  page  144.  Chronicles   of  Pl}Tnouth,  note  ^  on 

*  These  were  the  Tarrateens,  or  page  225,  and  the  Planters'  Plea, 

Eastern  Indians,  who  lived  on  the  page  27. 
17 


258 


CONVERSION    OF    THE    INDIANS. 


CHAP,  nor  trust  them  ;    for  forty  of  our  musketeers   will 

drive  five  hundred  of  them  out  of  the  field.     We  use 

1629.  them   kindly.^      They  will    come    into   our   houses 
•^"^^    sometimes  by  half  a  dozen  or  half  a  score  at  a  time 

to  -^  _ 

Sept.   when  we  are  at  victuals,  but  will  ask  or  take  nothing 
but  what  we  give  them. 

We  purpose  to  learn  their   language^  as  soon  as 
we  can,  w^hicli  will  be  a  means  to  do  them  good. 


Of  the  present  condition  of  the  Plantation,  and  ivhat  it  is. 

When  we  came  first  to  Nehum-kek,  we  found 
about  half  a  score  houses,  and  a  fair  house  newly 
built  for   the  Governor."^     We  found  also  abundance 


•  As  they  were  instructed  to  do. 
See  pages  159  and  176. 

'  The  first  planters  of  Massachu- 
setts liave  been  reproached  for  not 
attendhig  sooner  to  one  of  the  pro- 
fessed designs  of  their  Plantation, 
the  conversion  of  the  Indians  to 
Christianity.  The  reproach  is  un- 
merited. They  attended  to  it  as 
soon  as  it  was  possible.  For  a 
while  they  had  to  struggle  with  dis- 
ease and  famine  and  the  manifold 
hardships  attendant  upon  a  new  set- 
tlement. They  had  also  to  set  up 
a  Church  and  a  State  in  the  wil- 
derness. Then  came  the  troubles 
of  the  Antinomian  c(nitroversy,  and 
immediately  upon  that,  broke  out  the 
Peqnotwar.  During  all  this  period 
they  had  no  fit  opportunity  to  en- 
gage in  this  great  work,  and  no 
suitable  instruments  to  prosecute  it. 
As  soon  as  these  were  raised  up  by 
Providence,  they  entered  upon  the 
work,  learned  the  Indian  languages, 
and  preached  to  the  natives.  In 
1646  the  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts passed  an  Act  to  encourage 
the  carrying  of  the  Gospel  to  the 
Indians,  and  it  was  recommended  to 
the  elders  to  consider  how  it  might 
best  be  done.  In  the  same  year, 
John  Eliot,  the  Apuslk  to  the  In- 


dians^ as  he  has  been  called,  preach- 
ed to  them  in  their  own  language, 
and  subsequently  undertook  the 
Herculean  task  of  translating  the 
wlude  Bible  into  the  language  of 
the  Massachusetts  Indians,  which 
was  printed  at  Cambridge  in  1663, 
and  a  second  edition  in  1685.  A 
series  of  seven  tracts,  giving  an  ac- 
count of  the  attempts  to  convert  the 
natives  of  New-England  to  Christ- 
ianity, from  1617  to  1655,  may  be 
seen  in  the  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxiv. 
See  also  Daniel  Gookin's  Account 
in  the  same  Coll.  i.  169-22-1;  Hutch- 
inson's Mass.  i.  161  ;  and  Francis's 
Life  of  Eliot  in  Sparks's  American 
Biography,  vol.  5. 

^  See  i)age  240.  According  to 
the  deposition  of  Richard  Bracken- 
bury,  (who  came  over  with  Endicott 
in  1628,)  taken  in  1681,  when  he 
was  eighty  years  old,  the  house  here 
mentioned  was  built  of  the  materials 
of  another  house  erected  at  Cape 
Ann  by  Conant  and  his  associates. 
It  is  said  that  some  of  its  timbers 
are  contained  in  a  house  now  stand- 
ing in  Salem,  at  the  corner  of  Court 
and  Church  streets.  See  note  ^  on 
page  30,  and  Felt's  Annals  of  Sa- 
lem, i.  122. 


CONDITION    OF    THE    PLANTATION.  259 

of  corn  planted  by  them,  very  good  and  well  liking,  chap. 

And  we  brought  with  us  about  two  hundred  passen 

gers  and  planters  more,  which,  by  common  consent  1629. 
of  the  old  planters,  were  all  combined  together  into     t^/ 
one  body  politic,  under  the  same  Governor.  ^^P** 

There  are  in  all  of  us,  both  old  and  new  planters, 
about  three  liundred,  whereof  two  hundred  of  them 
are  settled  at  Nehum-kek,  now  called  Salem,  and  the 
rest  have  planted  themselves  at  Masathulets  Bay,^ 
beginning  to  build  a  towii~  there,  which  we  do  call 
Cherton  or  Charles  town. 

We  that  are  settled  at  Salem  make  what  haste  we 
can  to  build  houses,  so  that  within  a  short  time  we 
shall  have  a  fair  town. 

We  have  great  ordnance,^  wherewith  we  doubt  not 
but  we  shall  fortify  ourselves  in  a  short  time  to  keep 
out  a  potent  adversary.  But  that  which  is  our  great- 
est comfort  and  means  of  defence  above  all  others,  is 
that  we  have  here  the  true  religion  and  holy  ordi- 
nances of  Almighty  God  taught  amongst  us.^  Thanks 
be  to  God,  we  have  here  plenty  of  preaching,  and  dil- 
igent catechising,  with  strict  and  careful  exercise,  and 
good  and  commendable  orders  to  bring  our  people 
into  a  Christian  conversation  with  whom  we  have  to  do 
withal.  And  thus  we  doubt  not  but  God  will  be  with 
us  ;   and  if  God  be  with  "us,  who  can  be  against  us  ?  viii.  3I. 

Here  ends  Master  Higgeson's  Relation  of  New- 
England. 

*  According  to  the  Instructions  of  ^  The  church  of  Salem  was  formed 

the  Company.     See  page  150.  August    6th,    and   the    pastor,  and 

^  It  was  laid  out  by  Graves,  the  teacher,  and  ruling  elder,   were  or- 

engineer.     See  note  ^  on  pane  152.  daincd  the  same  day.    See  Morton's 

Winthrop,    i.    20,   30,  39,4(5,127,  Menioriul,  p.  116,  and  Prince's  An- 

cuUs  it  Charlton.  nals,  p.  263. 

^  Sec  pages  45,  50,  157. 


260  MORE    COLONISTS    EXPECTED. 


CHAP.  Some  brief  Collections  out  of  a  Letter'^  that  Mr.  His- 
XII.  ^  .     ^  .  ^ 

ginson  sent  to  his  friends  at  Leicester. 

1629.  Ill 

g  t.  There  are  certainly  expected  here  the  next  spring 
the  coming  of  sixty  families  out  of  Dorsetshire,"  who 
have  by  letters  signified  so  much  to  the  Governor, 
to  desire  him  to  appoint  them  places  of  habitations, 
they  bringing  their  ministers  with  them.  Also  many 
families  are  expected  out  of  Lincolnshire,^  and  a 
minister  with  them,  and  a  great  company  of  godly 
Christians  out  of  London. 

Such  of  you  as  come  from  Leicester,^  I  would 
counsel  you  to  come  quickly,  and  that  for  two  rea- 
sons. First,  if  you  linger  too  long,  the  passages  of 
Jordan,  through  the  malice  of  Sathan,  may  be  stop- 
ped, that  you  cannot  come  if  you  would. ^  Secondly, 
those  that  come  first  speed  best  here,  and  have  the 


'  "  A  letter  then  from  New-Eng-  mas  Shepard  embarked  under  the 
land,  and  for  a  considerable  tune  assumed  name  of  his  elder  brother 
after,  was  venerated  as  a  sacred  John,  a  husbandman.  In  April, 
script,  or  as  the  writing  of  some  1637,  a  Proclamation  was  issued  "  to 
holy  prophet ;  'twas  carried  many  restrain  the  disorderly  transporting 
miles,  where  divers  came  to  hear  of  his  Majesty's  subjects  to  the  Col- 
it."     Scottow's  Narrative,  p.  17.  onies  witliout  leave."    It  command- 

^  These    were  the    west-country  ed  that  "  no  license  should  be  given 

people,      Warbam    and    Maverick,  them,  without  a  certificate  that  they 

Ludlow  and  Piossiter,  of  whom  we  had  taken  the  oaths  of  Supremacy 

shall  hear  more  presently  from  Ro-  and  Allegiance,  and  had  conformed 

ger  Clap,  who  came  with  them.  to   the  cliscipline  of  the  Church  of 

^  These  were  the   Boston  people,  England."     And   in  May,   1638,  a 

with  whom  Cotton  was  expected  to  fresh   Proclamation  was  .published, 

come.     See  note  ^  on  page  48.  "  commanding  owners  and  masters 

*  His  former  place  of  residence  in  of  vessels,  that  they  do  not  fit  out 
England.     See  page  65.  any  with  passengers  and  provisions  to 

*  These  obstructions  to  emigra-  New-England,  without  license  from 
tion  were  soon  interposed.  In  1633,  the  Commissioners  of  Plantations." 
Cotton,  Hooker  and  Stone  with  great  See  Chalmers's  Annals,  i.  161; 
difhcvdty  eluded  the  vigilance  of  the  Rushworth's  Collections,  ii.  409; 
pursuivants,  and  escaped  from  the  Rymer's  Fcedera,  xx.  143,  223  ; 
country.  In  1635,  Richard  Mather  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  109  ;  and 
was  obhged  to  keep  close  till  the  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  268. 
vessel  was  fairly  at  sea ;  and  Tho- 


MORE    CATTLE    WANTED.  261 

privilege  of  choosing  choice  places  of  habitations,  chap. 

Little  children  of  five  years  old  may,  by  setting  corn ^ 

one  month,  be  able  to  get  their  own  maintenance  1629. 
abundantly.  0  what  a  good  work  might  you  that  ^P*' 
are  rich  do  for  your  poor  brethren,  to  help  them 
with  your  purses  only  to  convey  them  hither  with 
their  children  and  families,  where  they  may  live  as 
well,  both  for  soul  and  body,  as  any  where  in  the 
world.  Besides,  they  will  recompense  the  cost  by 
helping  to  build  houses  and  plant  your  ground  for  a 
time  ;  which  shall  be  difficult  work  at  the  first,  ex- 
cept you  have  the  help  of  many  hands.  Mr.  John- 
son,^ out  of  Lincolnshire,  and  many  others,  have 
helped  our  godly  Christians  hither,  to  be  employ- 
ed in  their  work  for  a  while,  and  then  to  live  of 
themselves. 

We  have  here  about  forty  goats  that  give  milk, 
and  as  many  milch  kine.  We  have  six  or  seven 
mares  and  a  horse,  and  do  every  day  expect  the 
coming  of  half  a  score  mares  more,  and  thirty  kine,^ 
by  two  ships ^  that  are  to  follow  us.  They  that  come 
let  them  bring  mares,  kine  and  sheep,  as  many  as 
they  can.  Ireland  is  the  best  place  to  provide  sheep, 
and  lies  in  the  way.  Bring  none  that  are  in  lamb, 
nor  mares  in  foal,  for  they  are  in  more  danger  to 
perish  at  sea.  Of  all  trades,  carpenters  are  most 
needful  ;   therefore  bring  as  many  as  you  can. 

It  were  a  wise  course  for  those  that  are  of  abilities 
to  join  together  and  buy  a  ship  for  the  voyage,  and 
other    merchandise  ;  for   the   Governor  would   that 


'  Isaac  Johnson,  of  whom  more        '  The  Four  Sisters  and  the  May- 
hereafter,  flower.     See  page  216. 
*  See  note  *  on  page  216. 


262  TRANSPORTATION    EXPENSIVE. 

CHAP,  any  man  may  employ  his  stock  in  what  merchandises 
he  please,  excepting  only  beaver  skins,  which  the 
company  of  merchants  reserve  to  themselves,  and 
the  managing  of  the  public  stock. ^  If  any  be  of  the 
mind  to  buy  a  ship,  my  cousin  Nowell's^  counsel 
would  be  good.  Also  one  Mr.  [  ],^  a  very  godly 
man  and  the  master  of  the  ship  we  went  in,  and  like- 
wise one  Mr.  Graves,'^  the  master's  mate,  dwelling  in 
Wapping,  may  herein  stand  you  in  stead.  The  pay- 
ment of  the  transportation  of  things  is  wondrous  dear, 
as  £5  a  man,  and  £10  a  horse,  and  commonly  £3 
for  every  ton  of  goods  ;  so  that  a  little  more  than 
will  pay  for  the  passage  will  purchase  the  possession 
of  a  ship  for  all  together. 

No  man  hath  or  can  have  a  house  built  for  him 
here  unless  he  comes  himself,  or  else  sends  servants 
before  to  do  it  for  him.  It  was  an  error  that  I  now 
perceive  both    myself  and  others  did  conceive,  by 


'  See  pages  114  and  148.  whom  the  first  and  the  last  gradu- 
*  Increase  Nowell,  who  was  one  ated  at  Harvard  College  in  1653  and 
of  the  patentees  mentioned  in  the  16G4.  See  Savage's  Winthrop,  i. 
Charter,  and  whose  name  occurs  so  31 ;  Bndington's  Hist,  of  the  First 
often  in  the  Company's  Records,  Church  in  Charlestown,pp,  31,  190; 
was  one  of  the  Assistants  from  tlie  Prince's  Annals,  p.  334. 
beginning  till  his  death,  and  a  very  '•'  This  name,  which  the  copyist 
active  and  efficient  member  of  the  could  not  decipher,  was  Beechcr, 
Company.  He  came  over  with  Guv.  Thomas.  See  note  "^  on  page  219. 
Winthrop,  and  settled  at  Charles-  ■*  This  Graves  was,  the  next  year, 
town,  of  which  place  he  was  the  mate  of  the  Arbella,  the  flag-ship  of 
first  town-clerk,  and  one  of  the  se-  Winthrop's  fleet,  was  afterwards 
lectmen  for  nineteen  years.  He  commander  of  a  vessel,  and  is  men- 
was  also  chosen  a  ruling  elder  of  tioned  by  Winthrop,  under  date  of 
Wilson's  f 'hurch,  but  soon  resigned  June  3,  1G35,  as  one  "  who  had 
that  place  on  the  ground  of  its  being  come  every  }'ear  for  these  seven 
incompatible  with  the  office  of  a  civil  years."  He  is  probably  the  person 
magistrate.  For  six  years,  from  who  was  made  a  rear-admiral  by 
1G44  to  1049,  he  was  Secretary  of  Cromwell  for  capturing  a  Dutch  pri- 
the  Colony,  which  he  fiiitiifully  serv-  vateer,  and  is  not  to  be  confounded 
ed.  lie  died  poor,  Nov.  1,  1655,  with  Graves,  the  engineer,  mention- 
leaving  a  widow,  Parnel,  and  five  ed  on  pp.  56  and  152.  See  Sav- 
children,  Samuel,  Mehetable,  In-  age's  Winthrop,  i.  8,  161. 
crease,   Mary,   and    Alexander,    of 


A  yeak's  provisions  to  be  brought.  263 

not  rightly  understanding  the  merchants'  meaning,  chap. 
For  we  thought  that  all  that  put  in  their  money  into 
the  common  stock  should  have  a  house  built  for  them, 
besides  such  a  portion  of  land  ;  but  it  was  not  so. 
They  shall  indeed  have  so  much  land  allotted  to 
them  when  they  come  to  take  possession  of  it  and 
make  use  of  it ;  but  if  they  will  have  houses,  they 
must  build  them.  Indeed,  we  that  are  ministers,  and 
all  the  rest  that  were  entertained  and  sent  over  and 
maintained  by  the  rest  of  the  Company,  as  their  ser- 
vants, for  such  a  time  in  such  employments,  all  such 
are  to  have  houses  built  them  of  the  Company's 
charge,^  and  no  others,  nor  otherwise.  They  that 
put  money  into  the  stock,  as  they  do  a  good  work  to 
help  forw^ard  so  worthy  a  Plantation,  so  all  the  gain 
they  are  like  to  have  is  according  to  the  increase 
of  the  stock  at  three^  years'  end  by  the  trade  of  bea- 
ver, besides  the  lands,  which  they  shall  enjoy  when 
they  will. 

All  that  come  must  have  victuals  with  them  for  a 
twelvemonth.  I  mean  they  must  have  meal,  oatmeal, 
and  such  like  sustenance  of  food,  till  they  can  get 
increase  of  corn  by  their  own  labor.  For  otherwise, 
so  many  may  come  without  provision  at  the  first,  as 
that  our  small  beginnings  may  not  be  sufficient  to 
maintain  them. 

Before  you  come,  be  careful  to  be  strongly  in- 
structed what  things  are  fittest  to  bring  with  you  for 
your  more  comfortable  passage  at  sea,  as  also  for 
your  husbandry  occasions  when  you  come  to  the 
land.     For  when  you  are  once  parted  with  England, 

'  See  the  Agreement  with  Brio-ht        '^  Probably  an  error  for  seven.  See 
and  Higginson,  on  pp.  208  and  210.     jjp.  Ill,  114,  116  and  117. 


264  NECESSARIES    FOR    THE    COLONY. 

CHAP,  you  shall  meet  neither  with  taverns,  nor  alehouse, 
nor  butchers',  nor  grocers',  nor  apothecaries'  shops 
to  help  what  things  you  need,  in  the  midst  of  the 
great  ocean,  nor  when  you  are  come  to  land  ;  here 
are  yet  neither  markets  nor  fairs  to  buy  what  you 
want.  Therefore  be  sure  to  furnish  yourselves  with 
things  fitting  to  be  had,  before  you  come  ;  as  meal 
for  bread,  malt  for  drink,  woollen  and  linen  cloth, 
and  leather  for  shoes,  and  all  manner  of  carpenters' 
tools,  and  a  good  deal  of  iron  and  steel  to  make  nails, 
and  locks  for  houses,  and  furniture  for  ploughs  and 
carts,  and  glass  for  windows,^  and  many  other  things, 
which  were  better  for  you  to  think  of  them  there 
than  to  want  them  here. 

Whilst  I  was  writing  this  letter,-  my  wife  brought 
me  word  that  the  fishers  had  caught  sixteen  hundred 
bass  at  one  draught  ;  which,  if  they  were  in  Eng- 
land, were  worth  many  a  pound. 


A  Letter^  sent  from  Neiv-England  by  Master  Graves ^'^ 
Engineer,  now  there  resident. 

Thus  much  I   can  affirm  in  general,  that  I  never 
came  in  a  more  goodly  country  in  all   my  life,  all 

*  See  Chronicles  of  Plymouth,  late  news  from  New-England.  I 
note  '  on  page  237.  would  have  some  of  you  read  it  to 

*  The  preceding  letter  was  not  a  your  mother,  and  let  Forth  copy  out 
part  of  Higginson's  New-England's  the  ohsen'ations  and  all  that  follows 
Plantation,  Yet  it  was  written  by  from  the  IO=,  and  the  Letter  in  the 
him  about  the  same  time,  and  comes  end,  and  show  it  Mr.  Mott  and  others 
in  more  appropriately  here  than  at  that  intend  this  voyage."  See  Win- 
the  end  of  the  Journal  of  his  voyage,  lhro})'s  Hist.  i.  3G1. 

to  which  it  was  appended.     I  have  ^  Tliis  Letter  is  not  contained  in 

taken  the  liberty  to  insert  it  in  this  the  first  edition,  printed  the   same 

place.     Gov.  Winthrop  undoubtedly  year.     It  may  be  a  part  of  the  letter 

refers  to   it,  when,  in  a  letter  to  his  mentioned  in  note  ^  on  page  152. 

son  John,   dated  Oct.   9,  162!),  he  •*  See  pages  53,  56,  and  note  *  on 

writes,   "  I  have  sent  down  all  the  page  152. 


FRUITFULNESS    OF    THE    COUNTRY.  265 

things  considered.     If  it  hath  not  at  any  time  been  chap. 
manured  and  husbanded,  yet  it  is  very  beautiful  in  ^^ — ^ 
open   lands,  mixed  with  goodly  woods,   and  again  1^29. 
open  plains,  in  some  places  five  hundred  acres,  some     ^^*" 
places  more,  some  less,  not  much  troublesome  for  to 
clear  for  the  plough  to  go  in  ;  no  place  barren  but 
on  the  tops  of  the  hills.     The  grass  and  weeds  grow 
up  to  a  man's  face  in   the   lowlands,    and  by  fresh 
rivers  abundance  of  grass  and  large  meadows,  with- 
out any  tree  or  shrub  to  hinder  the  scythe.     I  never 
saw,  except  in  Hungaria,^   unto  which  I  always  par- 
allel this  country,  in  all  or  most  respects  ;   for  every 
thing  that  is  here  either  sown  or  planted  prospereth 
far  better  than  in  Old  England.     The  increase  of 
corn  is  here  far  beyond  expectation,  as  I  have  seen 
here  by  experience  in  barley,   the  which,  because  it 
is  so  much  above  your  conception,  I  will  not  men- 
tion.    And  cattle  do  prosper  very  well,   and  those 
that  are  bred  here  far  greater  than  those  with  you  in 
England.    Vines  do  grow  here  plentifully,  laden  with 
the  biggest  grapes  that   ever  I  saw  ;   some  I  have 
seen  four  inches  about.     So  that  I  am  bold  to  say  of 
this  country,  as  it   is  commonly  said  in  Germany  of 
Hungaria,  that  for  cattle,  corn,  and  wine,  it  excelleth. 
We  have  many  more  hopeful  commodities  here  in 
this  country,  the  which  time  will  teach  to  make  good 
use  of.     In  the  mean  time,  we   abound  with   such 
things  which,  next  under  God,  do  make  us  subsist  ; 
as   fish,    fowl,  deer,  and  sundry  sorts  of  fruits,  as 
musk-melons,  water-melons,  Indian  pompions,  Indian 
pease,  beans,  and  many  other  odd  fruits  that  I  cannot 
name  ;  all  which  are  made  good  and  pleasant  through 

'  "  Ke  hath  been  a  traveller  in  divers  foreign  parts."     See  p.  153. 


266 


HEALTHFULNESS    OF    THE    COUNTRY. 


CHAP,  this  main  blessing  of  God,  the  healthfulness  of  the 

■ country,  which  far   exceedeth  all  parts  that  ever  I 

1629.  j^ave  been  in.  It  is  observed  that  few  or  none  do 
^^^'  here  fall  sick,  unless  of  the  scurvy,  that  they  bring 
from  aboard  the  ship  with  them  ;  whereof  I  have 
cured  some  of  my  company  only  by  labor.  Thus 
making  an  end  of  an  imperfect  description,  and  com- 
mitting you  to  God,  &c. 


16  30.  A  Catalogue  of  such  needful  things  as  every  planter 
doth  or  ought  to  provide  to  go  to  New-England  ; 
as  namely  for  one  man  ;  which,  being  doubled, 
may  serve  for  as  many  as  you  please,  viz. 

Victuals  for  a  wJiole  year  for  a  man,  and  so  after  the 
rate  for  more. 


8  bushels  of  meal, 
2  bushels  of  pease, 
2  bushels  of  oatmeal, 
1  gallon  of  aqua-vitae, 

1  gallon  of  oil, 

2  gallons  of  vinegar, 
1  firkin  of  butter. 

Apparel. 
1  Monmouth  cap,^ 

3  falling  bands, ^ 
3  shirts. 


1  waistcoat, 

1  suit  of  canvass, 

1  suit  of  frieze,^ 

1  suit  of  cloth, 

3  pair  of  stockings, 

4  pair  of  shoes, 

2  pair  of  sheets, 

7  ells  of  canvass,  to  make  a 

bed  and  bolster, 
1  pair  of  blankets, 
1  coarse  rug. 


•  See  note  ^  on  page  41. 
"  See  note  *  on  page  40. 


^  A  sort  of  coarse  woollen  cloth. 


THINGS    NEEDFUL    FOR    THE    PLANTER. 


267 


Arms. 

2  frowers,^                             chap. 

1  armour,  complete, 

1  handbill,^                            ^^ 

1  long  piece, 

1  grindstone,                        ^^^^• 

1  sword. 

1  pickaxe. 

1  belt. 

Nails,  of  all  sorts. 

1  bandoleer,^ 

20  pound  of  powder, 

Household  Implements. 

60  pound  of  lead. 

1  iron  pot. 

1  pistol  and  goose  shot. 

1  kettle, 

1  frying-pan. 

Tools. 

1  gridiron, 

1  broad  hoe. 

2  skillets, 

1  narrow  hoe. 

1  spit. 

1  broad  axe. 

Wooden  platters, 

1  felling  axe. 

Dishes, 

1  steel  handsaw. 

Spoons, 

1  whipsaw, 

Trenchers. 

1  hammer. 

1  shovel. 

Spices. 

1  spade, 

Sugar, 

2  augers. 

Pepper, 

4  chisels. 

Cloves, 

2  piercers,  stocked. 

Mace, 

1  gimlet. 

Cinnamon, 

1  hatchet. 

Nutmegs,  Fruit. 

Also,  there  are  divers  other  things  necessary  to  be 
taken  over  to  this  Plantation,  as  books,  nets,  hooks 
and  lines,  cheese,  bacon,  kine,  goats,  &c.^ 


'  See  note  '"  on  page  44.  ^  An  edged  tool,  with  a  hooked 

*  An  edged  tool,  used  in  cleaving     point,  used  to  lop  trees,  hedges,  &c. 
laths.  ■*  This  list  of  articles  is  not  con- 

tained in  the  first  edition. 


GENERAL  CONSIDERATIONS 
FOR   PLANTING    NEW-ENGLAND. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

GENERAL  CONSIDERATIONS  FOR  THE  PLANTATION  IN 
NEW-ENGLAND  ;  WITH  AN  ANSWER  TO  SEVERAL 
OBJECTIONS. 

First,  it  will  be  a  service  to  the  Church  of  great  chap. 

consequence,  to  carry  the  Gospel  into  those  parts  of. L 

the  world,  and  to  raise  a  bulwark  against  the   king-  1629. 
dom  of  Antichrist,  which  the  Jesuits  labor  to  rear  up 
in  all  pla  es  of  the  world. 

Secondly,  all  other  churches  of  Europe  are  brought 
to  desolation,  and  it  may  be  justly  feared  that  the  like 
judgment  is  coming  upon  us  ;  and  who  knows  but 
that  God  hath  provided  this  place  to  be  a  refuge 
for  many  wdiom  he  means  to  save  out  of  the  general 
destruction  ? 

Thirdly,  the  land  grows  weary  of  her  inhabitants, 
so  that  man,  which  is  the  most  precious  of  all  crea- 
tures, is  here  more  vile  and  base  than  the  earth  they 
tread  upon  ;  so  as  children,  neighbours  and  friends, 
especially  of  the  poor,  are  counted  the  greatest 
burdens,  which,  if  things  were  right,  would  be  the 
chiefest  earthly  blessings. 

Fourthly,  we  are  grown   to   that  excess   and  in- 


272  GENERAL    CONSIDERATIONS 

CHAP,  temperance  in  all  excess  of  riot,  as  no  mean  estate 
' — — '  almost  will  suffice  [a  man]  ^  to  keep  sail  with  his 
1629.  equals  ;  and  he  that  fails  in  it,  must  live  in  scorn 
and  contempt.  Hence  it  comes  to  pass,  that  all  arts 
and  trades  are  carried  in  that  deceitful  manner  and 
unrighteous  course,  as  it  is  almost  impossible  for  a 
good,  upright  man  to  maintain  his  charge,  and  live 
comfortably  in  any  of  them. 

Fifthly,  the  schools  of  learning  and  religion  are  so 
corrupted  as,  (besides  the  unsupportable  charge  of 
their  education,)  most  children,  even  the  best,  witti- 
est, and  of  fairest  hopes,  are  perverted,  corrupted, 
and  utterly  overthrown  by  the  multitude  of  evil  ex- 
amples and  licentious  governors  of  those  seminaries. 
Sixthly,  the  whole  earth  is  the  Lord's  garden,  and 
he  hath  given  it  to  the  sons  of  Adam  to  be  tilled  and 
improved  by  them.  Why  then  should  we  stand 
starving  here  for  places  of  habitation,  (many  men 
spending  as  much  labor  and  cost  to  recover  or  keep 
sometimes  an  acre  or  two  of  lands  as  would  procure 
him  many  hundreds  of  acres,  as  good  or  better,  in 
another  place,)  and  in  the  mean  time  suffer  whole 
countries,  as  profitable  for  the  use  of  man,  to  lie 
waste  without  any  improvement  ? 

Seventhly,  what  can  be  a  better  work,  and  more 
noble,  and  worthy  a  Christian,  than  to  help  to  raise 
and  support  a  particular  church  while  it  is  in  its  in- 
fancy, and  to  join  our  forces  with  such  a  company  of 
faithful  people  as  by  a  timely  assistance  may  grow 
stronger  and  prosper,  and  for  want  of  it  may  be  put 
to  great  hazard,  if  not  wholly  ruined  ? 

'  So  in  Mather,  Magnalia,  i.  65,  who  says  he  transcribes  from  a  MS. 


FOR    PLANTING    NEW-ENGLAND.  273 

Eighthly,  if  any  such  as  are  known  to  be  godly,  chaf. 

and  live  in  wealth  and  prosperity  here,  shall  forsake  

all  this  to  join  themselves  with  this  church,  and  run  1^29. 
in  hazard  with  them  of  a  hard  and  mean  condition,  it 
will  be  an  example  of  great  use  both  for  the  remov- 
ing of  scandal  and  sinister  and  worldly  respects,  to 
give  more  life  to  the  faith  of  God's  people  in  their 
prayers  for  the  Plantation,  and  also  to  encourage 
others  to  join  the  more  willingly  in  it. 

OBJECTIONS. 

Ob  J.  1.  It  will  be  a  great  wrong  to  our  own  Church 
and  country  to  take  away  the  best  people  ;  and  we 
shall  lay  it  more  open  to  the  judgments  feared. 

Ans.  First,  the  number  will  be  nothing  in  respect 
of  those  that  are  left.  Secondly,  many  that  live  to 
no  use  here,  more  than  for  their  own  private  fami- 
lies, may  be  employed  to  a  more  common  good  in 
another  place.  Thirdly,  such  as  are  of  good  use 
here  may  yet  be  so  employed  as  the  Church  shall  re- 
ceive no  loss  ;  and  since  Christ's  coming,  the  Church 
is  to  be  conceived  as  universal,  without  distinction 
of  countries ;  so  as  he  that  doth  good  in  any  one  place, 
serves  the  Church  in  all  places,  in  regard  of  the 
unity.  Fourthly,  it  is  the  revealed  will  of  God  that 
the  Gospel  should  be  preached  to  all  nations  ;  and 
though  we  know  not  whether  the  Indians  will  re- 
ceive it  or  not,  yet  it  is  a  good  work  to  observe 
God's  will  in  offering  it  to  them  ;  for  God  shall  have 
glory  by  it,  though  they  refuse  it. 

Obj.  2.  We  have  feared  a  judgment  a  long  time  ; 
but  yet  we  are  safe.  Therefore  it  were  better  to 
stay  till  it  come  ;    and  either  we  may  fly  then,  or  if 

18 


274 


GENERAL    CONSIDERATIONS 


CHAP,  we  be  overtaken  in  it,  we  may  well  be  content  to 

XIII 

> — ~  suffer  with  such  a  Church  as  ours  is. 

1G29.  _A.NS.  It  is  likely  that  this  consideration  made  the 
Churches  beyond  the  seas,  as  the  Palatinate^  and 
Rochelle,^  &c.  to  sit  still  at  home,  and  not  look  out 
for  shelter  while  they  might  have  found  it.  But  the 
woful  spectacle  of  their  ruin  may  teach  us  more  wis- 
dom, to  avoid  the  plague  while  it  is  foreseen,  and 
not  to  tarry  as  they  did,  till  it  overtook  them.  If 
they  were  now  at  their  former  liberty,  we  may  be 
sure  they  would  take  other  courses  for  their  safety. 
And  though  most  of  them  had  miscarried  in  their 
escape,  yet  it  had  not  been  half  so  miserable  to 
themselves,  or  scandalous  to  religion,  as  this  des- 


'  Frederic  V.,  the  Elector  Pala- 
tine of  the  Rhine,  married,  in  1612, 
the  princess  Elizabeth,  daughter  of 
James  I.  of  England,  and  in  1619 
accepted  the  crown  offered  to  him 
by  the  Protestants  of  Bohemia. 
This  election  gave  great  ofl^ence  to 
Ferdinand,  the  Emperor  of  Genna- 
ny,  who  claimed  the  kingdom  as  his 
own.  He  consequently  invaded  and 
reduced  both  the  Palatinate  and  Bo- 
hemia, defeated  the  Palgrave  near 
Prague  in  1621,  and  put  him  under 
the  ban  of  the  Empire.  A  dreadful 
persecution  of  the  Protestants  now 
commenced  through  the  Austrian 
territories,  and  the  Catholic  religion 
was  forcibly  introduced  into  the  Pa- 
latinate. An  edict  was  issued,  that 
the  Protestant  ministers  should  be 
forever  exiled,  and  their  churches 
closed.  See  Mod.  Univ.  Hist,  xxvii. 
1-2-1 ;  Coxe's  Hist,  of  the  House  of 
Austria,  i.  769-797,  815  ;  Harte's 
Hist,  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  i.  238- 
246. 

'  Rochclle,  the  principal  seat  and 
strong-hold  of  tlie  Huguenots,  was 
l)e8icgcd  by  Cardinal  Richelieu,  and, 
after  a  long  and  desperate  resistance, 


was  reduced  by  famine  in  Oct.  1628. 
This  disastrous  event  prostrated  the 
Protestants  in  France,  and  broke  their 
spirits  and  their  strength.  Their  af- 
fairs became  every  day  more  afflictive 
and  perilous.  They  saw  and  dread- 
ed the  approaching  storm,  but  knew 
not  how  to  evade  it.  Some  of  them 
fled  to  England,  but  found  no  peace 
there  ;  for  Laud  and  other  high 
churchmen  drove  them  back.  See 
Mosheim,  Eccles.  Hist.  v.  351  ;  and 
Dr.  Holmes's  Memoir  of  the  French 
Protestants,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
xxii.  18. 

Prince,  the  Annalist,  referring  to 
the  two  events  mentioned  in  the 
text,  says,  "  In  France  and  Navarre 
the  King  begins  to  persecute  the 
Protestants,  and  turn  them  out  of 
their  churches.  In  Bohemia  and 
Germany  the  Imperial  and  Spanish 
forces  are  ruining  the  Refonned  in- 
terest ;  and  the  King  of  England, 
extremely  solicitous  of  matching  his 
only  son,  Prince  Charles,  to  the 
Spanish  Infanta,  refuses  to  support 
his  own  daughter,  the  excellent 
Queen  of  Bohemia,  tiie  darling  of  the 
British  Puritans."     Annals,  p.  179. 


FOR    PLANTING    NEW-ENGLAND.  275 

perate   backsliding   and   abjuring  the  truth,    which  chap. 

many  of  the  ancient  professors  among  them,  and  the 

whole  posterity  that  remain,  are  plunged  into.  ^^2^- 

Obj.  3.  We  have  here  a  fruitful  land,  with  peace, 
and  plenty  of  all  things. 

Ans.  We  are  like  to  have  as  good  conditions  there 
in  time  ;  but  yet  we  must  leave  all  this  abundance, 
if  it  be  not  taken  from  us.  When  we  are  in  our 
graves,  it  will  be  all  one  whether  we  have  lived  in 
plenty  or  in  penury,  whether  we  have  died  in  a  bed 
of  down  or  locks  of  straw.  Only  this  is  the  advan- 
tage of  the  mean  condition,  that  it  is  a  more  freedom 
to  die.  And  the  less  comfort  any  have  in  the  things 
of  this  world,  the  more  liberty  they  have  to  lay  up 
treasure  in  heaven. 

Obj.  4.  We  may  perish  by  the  way,  or  when  we 
come  there,  having^  hunger  or  the  sword,  &c.  ;  and 
how  uncomfortable  will  it  be  to  see  our  wives  and 
children  and  friends  come  to  such  misery  by  our 
occasion. 

Ans.  Such  objections  savor  too  much  of  the  flesh. 
Who  can  secure  himself  or  his  from  the  like  calami- 
ties here  ?  If  this  course  be  warrantable,  we  may 
trust  God's  providence  for  these  things.  Either  he 
will  keep  those  evils  from  us,  or  will  dispose  them 
for  our  good,  and  enable  us  to  bear  them. 

Obj.  5.  But  what  warrant  have  we  to  take  that 
land,  which  is  and  hath  been  of  long  time  possessed 
of  others  the  sons  of  Adam  ? 

Ans.  That  which  is  common  to  all  is  proper  to 
none.     This  savage  people  ruleth  over  many  lands 

'  Perhaps  an  error  for  braving. 


276  GENERAL    CONSIDERATIONS 

CHAP,  without  title  or  property ;  for  they  enclose  no  ground, 

L  neither  have  they  cattle  to  maintain  it,  but  remove 

1629.  their  dwellings  as  they  have  occasion,  or  as  they  can 
prevail  against  their  neighbours.  And  why  may  not 
Christians  have  liberty  to  go  and  dwell  amongst 
them  in  their  waste  lands  and  woods,  (leaving  them 
such  places  as  they  have  manured  for  their  corn,)  as 
xiii.^xv.  lawfully  as  Abraham  did  amongst  the  Sodomites  ? 
For  God  hath  given  to  the  sons  of  men  a  twofold 
right  to  the  earth  ;  there  is  a  natural  right,  and  a 
civil  right.  The  first  right  was  natural,  when  men 
held  the  earth  in  common,  every  man  sowing  and 
feeding  where  he  pleased.  Then,  as  men  and  cattle 
increased,  they  appropriated  some  parcels  of  ground 
by  enclosing  and  peculiar  manurance ;  and  this  in 
time  ffot   them   a  civil  rio:ht.     Such  was  the  rio:ht 

Gen.  _       =>  ... 

xxiii.  which  Ephron  the  Hittite  had  in  the  field  of  Machpe- 
lah,  wdierein  Abraham  could  not  bury  a  dead  corpse 
without  leave,  though  for  the  outparts  of  the  country, 
which  lay  common,  he  dwelt  upon  them  and  took  the 
fruit  of  them  at  his  pleasure.  This  appears  also  in 
Gen.  Jacob  aud  his  sons,  who  fed  their  flocks  as  boldly  in 
i>i7-  the  Canaanites'  land,  for  he  is  said  to  be  lord  of  the 
country  ;  and  at  Dothan  and  all  other  places  men 
accounted  nothing  their  own  but  that  which  they  had 
appropriated  by  their  own  industry,  as  appears  plainly 
by  Abimelech's  servants,  who  in  their  own  country 

Oeii. 

xxvi'.    did  often  contend  with  Isaac's  servants  about  wells 

20. 

which  they  had  digged,  but  never  about  the  lands 
which  they  occupied.  So  likewise  between  Jacob 
and  Laban  ;  he  would  not  take  a  kid  of  Laban's 
without  special  contract,  but  he  makes  no  bargain 
with  him  for   the   land   where   they  fed.     And  it  is 


Onn. 
.\xx. 


FOR    PLANTING    NEW-ENGLAND,  277 

probable  that  if  the  country  had  not  been  as  free  for  ^■^^^^• 

Jacob  as  for  Laban,  that  covetous  wretch  would  have  

made  his  advantage  of  him,  and  have  upbraided  Jacob  ^^^^• 
with  it,  as  he  did  with  the  rest.  Secondly,  there 
is  more  than  enough  for  them  and  us.  Thirdly,  God 
hath  consumed  the  natives  with  a  miraculous  plague,^ 
wdiereby  the  greater  part  of  the  country  is  left  void 
of  inhabitants.  Fourthly,  we  shall  come  in  with 
good  leave  of  the  natives. 

Obj.  6.  We  should  send  our  young  ones,  and 
such  as  may  best  be  spared,  and  not  of  the  best  of 
our  ministers  and  magistrates. 

Ans.  It  is  a  great  work,  and  requires  more  skilful 
artisans  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  new  building,  than 
to  uphold  and  repair  one  that  is  already  built.  If 
great  things  be  attempted  by  weak  instruments,  the 
effects  will  be  answerable. 

Obj.  7.  We  see  that  those  plantations  that  have 
been  formerly  made,  succeeded  ill. 

Ans.  First,  the  fruit  of  any  public  design  is  not  to 
be  discerned  by  the  immediate  success  ;  it  may  ap- 
pear in  time,  that  they  were  all  to  good  use.  Se- 
condly, there  w^ere  great  fundamental  errors  in 
others,  which  are  like  to  be  avoided  in  this  ;  for, 
first,  their  main  end  and  purpose  was  carnal,  and  not 
religious  ;  secondly,  they  aimed  chiefly  at  profit,  and 
not  at  the  propagation  of  religion  ;  thirdly,  they  used 
too  unfit  instruments,  a  multitude  of  rude,  ungovern- 
ed  persons,  the  very  scums  of  the  land  ;  fourthly, 
they  did  not  stablish  a  right  form  of  government.^ 

'  See  page  256,  and  Chronicles  of  of  that  date, -written  by  John  Win- 
Plymouth,  note  ^  on  p.  183.  throp,  jr.    to  his   father,    he   says, 

"  This  paper  was  drawn  up  before  "The  Conclusions  which  you  sent 

August  21,  1629.     For  in  a  letter  down,  I  showed  my  uncle  and  aunt. 


278 


THE    CONCLUSIONS. 


who  like  them  well.  I  think  they 
are  unanswerable  ;  and  it  cannot  but 
be  a  prosperous  action,  which  is  so 
1629  ^^^^  allowed  by  the  judgments  of 
God's  prophets,  undertaken  by  so 
rehgious  and  wise  wortliies  of  Israel, 
and  indented  to  God's  glory  in  so 
special  a  service."  Mr.  Savage  re- 
marks on  this,  "  Tlie  Conclusions 
spoken  of  by  the  son  were,  no 
doubt,  a  paper  of  Considerations  for 
the  Plantation,  with  an  Answer  to 
several  Objections,  probably  drawn 
by  our  author  (Gov.  Winthrop.)  I 
have  had  in  my  possession  the  larger 


part  of  the  original ;"  which  he 
since  informs  me  was  in  the  hand- 
writing of  Winthrop.  Felt,  in  his 
Annals  of  Salem,  i.  69,  ascribes  it  to 
Higginson,  but  upon  no  other  au- 
thority than  the  general  title  which 
Hutchinson  prefixes  to  certain  pa- 
pers appended  to  the  Journal  of  the 
Voyage.  The  MS.  used  by  Hutch- 
inson is  now  in  my  possession,  and 
from  that  I  print.  It  varies  some- 
what from  Mather's  copy  in  the 
Magnalia,  i.  65.  See  Savage's 
Winthrop,  i.  360. 


THE  AGREEMENT  AT  CAMBRIDGE. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

THE    TRUE     COPY    OF    THE    AGREE:\rEXT    AT    CAM- 
BRIDGE, AUGUST   26,   1629. 

Upon  due  consideration  of  the  state  of  the  Planta-  chap. 

XIV. 

tion  now  in  hand  for  New-England,  wherein  we,  -^ — 1 
whose  names  are  hereunto  subscribed,  have  engaged  1^29. 
ourselves,  and  having  weighed  the  greatness  of  the  'go! 
w^ork  in  regard  of  the  consequence,  God's  glory  and 
the  Church's  good  ;  as  also  in  regard  of  the  difficul- 
ties and  discouragements  which  in  all  probabilities 
must  be  forecast  upon  the  prosecution  of  this  busi- 
ness ;  considering  withal  that  this  whole  adventure 
grows  upon  the  joint  confidence  we  have  in  each 
other's  fidelity  and  resolution  herein,  so  as  no  man  of 
us  w^ould  have  adventured  it  without  assurance  of  the 
rest  ;  now,  for  the  better  encouragement  of  ourselves 
and  others  that  shall  join  with  us  in  this  action,  and 
to  the  end  that  every  man  may  without  scruple  dis- 
pose of  his  estate  and  affairs  as  may  best  fit  his  pre- 
paration for  this  voyage  ;  it  is  fully  and  faithfully 
AGREED  amongst  us,  and  every  of  us  doth  hereby 
freely  and  sincerely  promise  and  bind  himself,  in  the 


282  THE  AGREEMENT  AT  CAMBRIDGE. 

CHAP,  word  of  a  Christian,  and  in  the  presence  of  God,  who 

is  the  searcher  of  all   hearts,  that  we  will  so  really 

1629.  endeavour  the  prosecution  of  this  work,  as  by  God's 
26t'  assistance,  we  will  be  ready  in  our  persons,  and  with 
such  of  our  several  families  as  are  to  go  with  us,  and 
such  provision  as  we  are  able  conveniently  to  furnish 
ourselves  withal,  to  embark  for  the  said  Plantation 
by  the  first  of  March  next,  at  such  port  or  ports  of 
this  land  as  shall  be  agreed  upon  by  the  Company,  to 
the  end  to  pass  the  seas,  (under  God's  protection,) 
to  inhabit  and  continue  in  New-England  :  Provided 
always,  that  before  the  last  of  September  next,  the 
whole  government,  together  with  the  patent  for  the 
said  Plantation,  be  first,  by  an  order  of  Court,  legally 
transferred  and  established  to  remain  with  us  and 
others  which  shall  inhabit  upon  the  said  Plantation  :* 
and  provided  also,  that  if  any  shall  be  hindered  by 
such  just  and  inevitable  let  or  other  cause,  to  be 
allowed  by  three  parts  of  four  of  these  whose  names 
are  hereunto  subscribed,  then  such  persons,  for  such 
times  and  during  such  lets,  to  be  discharged  of  this 
bond.  And  we  do  further  promise,  every  one  for 
himself,  that  shall  fail  to  be  ready  through  his  own 
default  by  the  day  appointed,  to  pay  for  every  day's 
default  the  sum  of  o£3,  to  the  use  of  the  rest  of  the 
company  who  shall  be  ready  by  the  same  day  and  time. 
This  was  done  by  order  of  Court,  the  29th  of 
August,  1629.2 

Richard  Saltonstall,  Thomas  Sharpe, 

Thomas  Dudley,  Increase  Nowell, 

William  Vassall,  John  Winthrop, 

Nicholas  West,^  William  Pinchon/ 

Isaac  Johnson,  Kellam  Browne,' 

John  Humfrey,  William  Colbron. 


WILLIAM   PYNCHON,  OF    SPRINGFIELD. 


283 


'  See  pages  85-88,  and  91. 

*  This  seems  to  have  been  a  note 
interpolated  after  the  paper  was 
signed.     See  page  88. 

^  West  and  Browne  never  came 
over  to  the  Colony,  and  nothing  is 
known  concerning  them. 

*  William  Pynchon,  whose  name 
occurs  so  frequently  in  the  Compa- 
ny's Records,  was  a  gentleman  of 
learning  as  well  as  religion.  He 
was  one  of  the  Assistants  named  in 
the  Charter,  and  came  over  with 
Gov.  Winthrop.  He  laid  the  found- 
ation of  the  town  of  Roxbury,  and 
was  the  first  member  of  the  church 
in  that  place.  Early  in  1636  he  re- 
moved to  Connecticut  river,  with 
eight  others,  and  was  the  father  of 
the  town  of  Springfield,  which  was 
so  named  after  the  town  in  England 
where  he  resided,  near  Chelmsford, 
in  Essex.  In  1650,  there  appeared 
in  England  a  book  entitled,  "  The 
INIeritorious  Price  of  our  Redemp- 
tion, Justification,  &c.,  clearing  it 
from  some  Errors,  by  William  Pin- 
chin,  in  New-England,  gent."  A 
copy  of  til  is  book  was  brought  over 
by  a  ship  a  few  days  before  the 
meeting  of  the  General  Court,  which 
was  held  Oct.  15,  and  which  pro- 
ceeded to  pass  the  following  order  : 
"  This  Court  having  had  a  sight  of 
a  book  lately  printed,  under  the 
name  of  William  Pinchon,  in  New- 
England,  gent.,  and  judging  it  meet, 
do  therefore  order;  first,  that  a  Pro- 
test be  drawn,  fully  and  clearly  to 
satisfy  all  men  that  this  Court  do  ut- 
terly dislike  it  and  detest  it  as  erro- 
neous and  dangerous  ;  secondly,  that 
it  be  sufficiently  answered  by  one  of 
the  reverend  elders  ;  thirdly,  that 
the  said  William  Pinchon,  gent.,  be 
summoned  to  appear  before  the  next 
General  Court  to  answer  for  the 
same  ;  fourthly,  that  the  said  book, 
now  brought  over,  be  burnt  by  the 
executioner,  and  that  in  the  market- 
place in  Boston  on  the  morrow,  im- 
mediately after  the  Lecture."  The 
Rev.  John  Norton,  of  Ipswich,  was 
entreated  to  answer  the  book,  which 
he  did.     The  Protest  of  the  Court 


covers  a  page  of  their  Records,  and 
in  it  they  condemn  the  book  as 
"  false,  erroneous,  and  heretical," 
and  declare  their  purpose  "  to  pro- 
ceed with  the  author  according  to 
his  demerits,  unless  he  retract  the 
same,  and  give  full  satisfaction  both 
here  and  by  some  second  writing  to 
be  printed  and  dispersed  in  England." 
The  grand  error  of  the  book  consist- 
ed in  regarding  the  sufterings  of 
Christ  as  merely  "  trials  of  his  obe- 
dience ;"  and  of  course  it  was  the 
first  heretical  work  on  the  Atone- 
ment that  was  written  in  this  coun- 
try. At  the  next  General  Court, 
held  May  7,  1651,  Pj-nchon  appear- 
ed, and  explained  or  retracted  the 
obnoxious  opinions,  after  hanng 
conferred  with  the  Rev.  Messrs. 
Cotton,  Norris,  and  Norton.  He 
appeared  before  them  again  Oct.  14, 

1651,  but  the  judgment  of  the  Court 
on  his  errors  and  heresies  was  sus- 
pended till  the  next  session  in  May, 

1652.  Before  that  time,  Mr.  Py^i- 
chon,  seeing  the  storm  gathering, 
and  doubtful  what  might  be  the  re- 
sult, prudently  left  the  Colony  and 
returned  to  England,  accompanied 
by  his  son-in-law,  Capt.  Henry 
Smith,  and  the  Rev.  George  Moxon, 
a  graduate  of  Sydney  College,  Cam- 
bridge, in  1623,  who  had  been  the 
minister  of  Springfield  since  1637. 
Is  it  not  probable,  that  Moxon  him- 
self was  infected  with  the  same  her- 
esy, and  perhaps  had  a  hand  in  writ- 
ing the  book  ?  From  a  letter  of  the 
Governor  and  Council,  preserved  in 
INIass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxi.  35,  it  appears 
that  Sir  Henry  Vane  had  written 
them  a  letter  in  behalf  of  Pynchon, 
April  15,  1652,  previous  to  which 
he  had  probably  arrived  in  England. 
They  speak  of  him  as  "  one  whom 
we  did  all  love  and  respect,"  and 
intimate  that  he  had  privately  held 
this  doctrine  "  above  thirty  years." 
He  died  at  Wraysbury,  on  the 
Thames,  in  Buckinghamshire,  in 
October,  1662,  aged  72  or  74.  His 
son,  John,  was  a  prominent  man  in 
the  Colony,  and  a  long  line  of  de- 
scendants mav  be  seen  in  Farmer's 


284  WILLIAM    PYNCHON,  OF    SPRINGFIELD. 

CHAP.  Genealogical  Register.    No  copy  of  his  family,  is  printed  in  the  Mass. 

XIV.     Pynchon's  book  is  known  to  exist  in  Hist.  Coll.  xviii.  228-249.  See  Col. 

— -  this  country,  liiit  Mr.  Savage  found  Rec.  ii.  280-3,   295,  328  ;    Breck's 

162  9.   it  in  the   British   Museum,  and  two  Century    Sermon    at     Springfield, 

other  tracts  written  by  him.     A  se-  pp.  15-17  ;    Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xvi. 

rics  of  papers,  belonging  to  him  and  308,  xxviii.  248,  288,  294. 


THE  COMPANY'S  LETTERS 


TO 


I 

HIGGINSON    AND     ENDICOTT.  ^ 


CHAPTER   XV. 


THE    company's    LETTER    TO    THE    MINISTERS.^ 


Reverenb  Friends, 

There  are  lately  arrived  here 
the   Governor,   Mr.  Endecott 


being  sent  from  chap. 
as  men  factious  and  « -^ 


evil  conditioned,   John  and  Samuel  Browne,^  being 


'  See  note  on  page  99. 

*  The  Brownes  arrived  in  London 
before  Sept.  19,  in  the  Talbot  or 
Lion's  Whelp.  They  probably  left 
Salem  soon  after  the  installation  of 
the  ministers,  which  took  place  Au- 
gust 6.  Of  course  they  remained  in 
New-England  only  five  or  six  weeks, 
having  landed  at  vSalem  June  30. 
See  pages  89,  90,  235. 

^  The  case  of  the  Brownes  has 
already  been  frequently  mentioned 
and  referred  to.  See  pages  89,  91, 
94,  123,  168.  We  are  fortunate  in 
having  a  statement  of  the  aifair  from 
one  who  was  a  contemporary  and 
probably  an  eye-witness.  Gov.  Brad- 
ford, who  was  at  Salem  on  the  day 
that  Higginson  and  Skelton  were 
ordained,  Aug.  6,  tells  us,  (for,  as 
Prince  says,  p.  xx.  "  Morton's  His- 
tory, down  to  1646,  is  chiefly  Gov. 
Bradford's  manuscript  abbreviated,") 
that  "  some  of  the  passengers  that 
came  over  at  the  same  time,  observ- 
ing that  the  ministers  did  not  at  all 
use  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 


and  that  they  did  administer  baptism 
and  the  Lord's  supper  without  the 
ceremonies,  and  that  they  professed 
also  to  use  discipline  in  the  congre- 
gation against  scandalous  persons, 
by  a  personal  application  of  the  word 
of  God,  as  the  case  might  require, 
and  that  some  that  were  scandalous 
were  denied  admission  into  the 
church,  they  began  to  raise  some 
trouble.  Of  these,  Mr.  Samuel 
Browne  and  his  brother  were  the 
chief,  the  one  being  a  lawyer,  the 
other  a  merchant,  both  of  them 
amongst  the  number  of  the  first  pa- 
tentees, men  of  estates,  and  men  of 
parts  and  port  in  the  place.  These 
two  brothers  gathered  a  company 
together,  in  a  place  distinct  from  the 
public  assembly,  and  there,  sundry 
times,  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
Avas  read  unto  such  as  resorted  thi- 
ther. The  Governor,  Mr.  Endicott, 
taking  notice  of  the  disturbance  that 
began  to  grow  amongst  the  people 
by  this  means,  he  convented  the  two 
brothers  before  him.     They  accused 


1629. 

Oct. 
16. 


288 


THE    AFFAIR    OF    THE    BROWNES. 


CHAP,  brethren  ;  who,  since  their  arrival,  have  raised  ru- 
mors (as  we  hear,)  of  divers  scandalous  and  intem- 
perate speeches  passed  from  one  or  both  of  you  in 
your  public  sermons  or  prayers  in  New-England,  as 
also  of  some  innovations  attempted  by  you.  We 
have  reason  to  hope  that  their  reports  are  but  slan- 
ders ;  partly,  for  that  your  godly  and  quiet  condi- 


the  ministers  as  departing  from  the 
orders  of  the  Church  of  England, 
that  they  were  Separatists,  and 
would  be  Anabaptists,  &c.  :  but  for 
themselves,  they  would  hold  to  the 
oiders  of  the  Church  of  England. 
The  ministers  answered  for  them- 
selves, They  were  neither  Separa- 
tists nor  Anabaptists  ;  they  did  not 
separate  from  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, nor  from  the  ordinances  of  God 
there,  but  only  from  the  corruptions 
and  disorders  there  ;  and  that  they 
came  away  from  the  Common  Prayer 
and  ceremonies,  and  had  suffered 
much  for  their  non-conformity  in 
their  native  land  ;  and  therefore  be- 
ing in  a  place  where  they  might 
have  their  liberty,  they  neither  could 
nor  would  use  them,  because  they 
judged  the  imposition  of  these  things 
to  be  sinful  corruptions  in  the  wor- 
ship of  God.  The  Governor  and 
Council,  and  the  generality  of  the 
people,  did  well  approve  of  the  min- 
isters' answer  ;  and  therefore,  find- 
ing those  two  brothers  to  be  of  high 
spirits,  and  their  speeches  and  prac- 
tices tending  to  mutiny  and  faction, 
the  Governor  told  them  that  New- 
England  was  no  place  for  such  as 
they,  and  therefore  he  sent  them 
both  back  for  England  at  the  return 
of  the  ships  the  same  year  ;  and 
though  they  breathed  out  threaten- 
ings  both  against  the  Governor  and 
ministers  there,  yet  the  Lord  so  dis- 
posed of  all,  that  there  was  no  fur- 
ther inconvenience  followed  upon 
it."     Morton's  Memorial,  p.  147. 

It  appears  from  page  89,  that  on 
their  return  to  England,  a  committee 
of  ten  was  appointed  l)y  the  Compa- 


ny, four  of  whom  were  nominated 
by  the  Brownes  themselves,  to  in- 
vestigate the  affair.  To  what  result 
that  committee  came,  we  are  not  in- 
formed ;  but  the  fact  of  the  appoint- 
ment of  such  a  committee  shows  the 
disposition  of  the  Company  to  do  am- 
ple justice  to  the  complainants,  and 
disproves  the  charges  of  contempt 
and  injustice  alleged  against  them  by 
Chalmers,  (Annals,  p.  146.)  We 
find  from  page  94,  that,  at  their  re- 
quest, the  Brownes  were  furnished 
with  a  copy  of  Endicott's  accusation 
against  them,  to  enable  them  to  pre- 
pare their  defence,  — and  from  page 
123,  that  a  statement  of  grievances, 
which  they  presented  to  the  Compa- 
ny for  loss  and  damage  sustained  in 
New-England,  was  referred  to  an- 
other committee,  with  full  power  to 
allow  what  indemnity  they  should 
think  proper,  and  so  end  the  matter. 
Endicott  undoubtedly  thought  he 
was  acting  in  conformity  with  his 
instructions,  in  sending  them  home. 
See  pages  159,  160,  196.  Grahame, 
in  his  History  of  the  United  States, 
i.  218,  says,  "  Notwithstanding  the 
censure  with  which  some  writers 
have  commented  on  the  banishment 
of  these  two  individuals,  the  justice 
of  the  proceeding  must  commend  it- 
self to  the  sentiments  of  all  impartial 
men."  Bancroft,  i.  350,  remarks 
that  "  faction,  deprived  of  its  lead- 
ers, died  away,"  and  adds,  that 
"  the  liberal  EbeUng,  i.  869,  defends 
the  measure."  A  mural  tablet  has 
been  erected  to  the  memory  of  the 
]3rownes  in  the  Episcopal  church  at 
Salem. 


THE    company's    LETTER    TO    THE    MINISTERS.  289 

tions  are  well  known  to  some  of  us  ;   as  also,  for  that  chap. 

these  men,  yom^  accusers,  seem  to  be  embittered  . -^ 

against  you  and  Captain  Endecott  for  injuries  which  1629. 
they  conceive  they  have  received  from  some  of  you  jg/ 
there.  Yet,  for  that  we  all  know  that  the  best  ad- 
vised may  overshoot  themselves,  we  have  thought 
good  to  inform  you  of  what  we  hear,  that  if  you  be 
innocent  you  may  clear  yourselves  ;  or  if  otherwise, 
you  may  hereby  be  entreated  to  look  back  upon  your 
miscarriage  with  repentance  ;  or  at  least  to  take 
notice  that  we  utterly  disallow  any  such  passages, 
and  must  and  will  take  order  for  the  redress  thereof, 
as  shall  become  us.  But  hoping,  as  we  said,  of  your 
unblamableness  herein,  we  desire  only  that  this  may 
testify  to  you  and  others  that  we  are  tender  of  the 
least  aspersion  which,  either  directly  or  obliquely, 
may  be  cast  upon  the  State  here  ;^  to  whom  we  owe 
so  much  duty,  and  from  whom  we  have  received  so 
much  favor  in  this  Plantation  where  you  now  reside. 
So  with  our  love  and  due  respect  to  your  callings, 
we  rest, 

Your  loving  friends, 

R.  Saltonstall,  Tho.  Adams, 

IsA.  Johnson,  Sym.  Whetcombe, 

Matt.  Cradock,  Governor,  William  Vassall, 

Tho.  Goff,  Deputy,  Wm.  Pinchion, 

Geo.  Harwood,  Treasurer,  John  Revell, 

John  Winthrop,  Francis  Webb.* 

London,  16  October,  1629. 

^  The    Company  seem  to    ha,ve  Endicott,  as  we  may  infer  from  the 

been    veiy  sohcitous    that   nothing-  daring  and  reckless  spirit  with  which 

should  be  done  in  their  Plantation  he  afterwards  cut  the  red  cross  out 

which  might  furnish  a  pretext  for  the  of  the  King's  colors,  not  being  able 

Government   to  revoke  their  Char-  to  brook  what   appeared  to  him   a 

ter.    Such  prudential  considerations,  Popish  and  idolatrous  emblem. 

however,   weighed  but    little  with  *  See  note  "  on  page  179. 
19 


290  THE  company's  letter 


THE  COMPANY  S  LETTER  TO  THE  GOVERNOR. 

Sir, 
As  we  have  written  at  this  time  to  Mr.  Skelton 
and  Mr.  Higgison  touching  the  rumors  of  John  and 
Samuel  Browne,  spread  by  them  upon  their  arrival 
here,  concerning  some  unadvised  and  scandalous 
speeches  uttered  by  them  in  their  public  sermons  or 
prayers,  so  have  we  thought  meet  to  advertise  you 
of  what  they  have  reported  against  you  and  them, 
concerning  some  rash  innovations^  begun  and  prac- 
tised in  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  government. 
We  do  well  consider  that  the  Brownes  are  likely  to 
make  the  worst  of  any  thing  they  have  observed  in 
New-England,  by  reason  of  your  sending  them  back, 
against  their  wills,  for  their  offensive  behaviour,  ex- 
pressed in  a  general  letter  from  the  Company  there.^ 
Yet,  for  that  we  likewise  do  consider  that  you  are  in 
a  government  newly  founded,  and  want  that  assist- 
ance which  the  weight  of  such  a  business  doth  re- 
quire, we  may  have  leave  to  think  that  it  is  possible 
some  undigested  counsels  have  too  suddenly  been 
put  in  execution,  which  may  have   ill  construction 


'  These  innovations,  I  suppose,  is,  as  far  as  I  can  yet  gather,  no 
had  reference  principally  to  the  i'orva-  other  than  is  warranted  by  the  evi- 
ation  of  the  church  at  Salem,  the  dence  of  truth,  and  the  same  which 
adoption  of  a  confession  of  faith  and  I  have  professed  and  maintained 
covenant  by  the  people,  and  their  ever  since  the  Lord  in  mercy  reveal- 
election  and  ordination  of  the  minis-  ed  himself  unto  me,  being  far  differ- 
ters.  Endicott,  we  know,  sympa-  ing  from  the  common  report  that 
thized  fully  with  the  Separatists  of  hath  been  spread  of  you  touching 
New-Plymouth.  In  a  letter  of  his  th;it  particular,"  See  Mass.  Hist. 
to  Gov.  Bradford,  dated  Naumkeak,  Coll.  iii.  66. 

May  11,  1629,  he  writes.  "  I  rejoice  ^  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  this 

much  that  I  am  by  Mr.  Fuller  satis-  letter  is  not  now  in  existence.     See 

fied  touching  your  judgment  of  the  pages  89  and  94. 
outward  form  of  God's  worship.     It 


TO    GOVERNOR    ENDICOTT. 


291 


with  the  State  here,  and  make  us  obnoxious  to  any  chap. 

adversary.     Let  it  therefore  seem  good  unto  you  to  

be  very  sparing  in  introducing  any  laws  or  commands  ^^2^- 
which  may  render  yourself  or  us  distasteful  to  the  le.' 
State  here,  to  which  (as  we  ought)  we  must  and  will 
have  an  obsequious  eye.^  And  as  we  make  it  our 
main  care  to  have  the  Plantation  so  ordered  as  may 
be  most  for  the  honor  of  God  and  of  our  gracious 
Sovereign,  who  hath  bestowed  many  large  privileges 
and  royal  favors  upon  this  Company,  so  we  desire 
that  all  such  as  shall  by  word  or  deed  do  any  thing 
to  detract  from  God's  glory  or  his  Majesty's  honor, 
may  be  duly  corrected,  for  their  amendment  and  the 
terror  of  others.  And  to  that  end,  if  you  know  any 
thing  which  hath  been  spoken  or  done  either  by  the 
ministers,  (whom  the  Brownes  do  seem  tacitly  to 
blame  for  some  things  uttered  in  their  sermons  or 
prayers,)  or  any  others,  we  require  you,  if  any  such 
thing  be,  that  you  form  due  process  against  the  offend- 
ers, and  send  it  to  us  by  the  first,  that  we  may,  as 
our  duty  binds  us,  use  means  to  have  them  duly 
punished. 

So  not  doubting  but  we  have  said  enough,  we  shall 
repose  ourselves  upon  your  wisdom,  and  do  rest 
Your  loving  friends. 
Dated  and   signed  as   the  former  letter  to   Mr. 
Skelton  and  Mr.  Higgison. 

To  the  Governor^  Capt.  Endecott.^ 

'  In  dealing  with  such  unscrupu-  vioiis  to  his  coming-  to  New-Eng- 
lous  persons  as  Charles  I.  and  Laud,  land,  except  what  is  stated  on  page 
the  Company  had  to  exercise  a  good  143,  that  he  had  sat  under  Mr.  Skel- 
deal  of  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent,  ton's  ministry,  perhaps  in  Lincoln- 
See  note  '  on  page  289.  shire.     He  was  of  course  supersed- 

^  Nothing   is   known  of  the  life  ed  in  his  ofBce  of  Governor  of  the 

and  history  of  John  Endicott  pre-  Colony  by  the  arrival  of  Winthrop 


292 


JOHN    ENDICOTT,  OF    SALEM. 


Oct. 
16. 


with  the  Charter,  in  1630.  He  was, 
however,  the  same  year  chosen  an 
Assistant,  which  place  he  occupied 
1629,  ""'^  years.  In  1636,  he  was  chosen 
a  colonel,  and  commanded  the  first 
unsuccessful  expedition  in  the  Pe- 
quot  War.  In  1641,  he  was  elected 
Deputy  Governor,  which  office  he 
held  four  years.  He  was  chosen 
Governor  in  1644,  1649,  1651-53, 
and  1655-1665,  sixteen  years,  a 
longer  period  than  any  Governor  of 
the  Colony  was  in  office  under  the 
old  Charter,  and  exceeded  one  year 
only,  under  the  new,  by  Shirley 
alone.  In  1645  he  was  chosen  Ma- 
jor General,  which  office  he  held  for 
four  years.  In  1644,  he  removed  to 
Boston,  where  he  died,  March  15, 
1665,  in  his  77th  year.  His  wife, 
Anna  Gover,  a  cousin  of  Gov.  Cra- 
dock,  died  soon  after  his  arrival  at 
Salem.  See  page  131.  His  house 
stood  on  the  lot  now  occupied  by 
the  shops  in  Tremont-street,  at  the 
head  of  Court-street,  in  front  of  Pem- 
berton  Square.  His  portrait  hangs 
in  the  Senate  Chamber,  at  the  State 
House.  See  Savage's  Winthrop, 
i.  26,  156,  158,  192  ;  Snow's  Hist, 
of  Boston,  p.  148 ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
xviii.  52. 

Hutcliinson  says,  i.  17,  that  "  En- 
dicott  was  among  the  most  zealous 
undertakers,  and  the  most  rigid  in 
principles.  This  disposition  distin- 
guished him,  more  than  his  otlier 
mental  accomplisliments,  or  his  out- 
ward condition  in  life.     I  have  seen 


a  letter  from  the  Secretary  of  State 
in  King  Charles  the  Second's  time, 
in  which  is  this  expression,  '  The 
King  would  take  it  well  if  the  peo- 
ple would  leave  out  Mr.  Endicott 
from  the  place  of  Governor.'  "  Mr. 
F.  M.  Hubbard,  in  his  new  edition 
of  Belknap's  Amer.  Biog.  iii.  166, 
remarks,  "  Gov.  Endicott  was  un- 
douljtedly  the  finest  specimen  to  be 
found  among  our  Governors  of  the 
genuine  Puritan  character.  He  was 
of  a  quick  temper,  which  the  habit 
of  mihtary  command  had  not  soften- 
ed ;  of  strong  religious  feelings, 
moulded  on  the  sterner  features  of 
Calvinism ;  resolute  to  uphold  with 
the  sword  what  he  had  received  as 
Gospel  truth,  and  fearing  no  enemy 
so  much  as  a  gainsaying  spirit. 
Cordially  disliking  the  English 
Church,  he  banished  the  Brownes 
and  the  Prayer  Book ;  and,  averse 
to  all  ceremonies  and  symbols,  the 
cross  in  the  King's  colors  was  an 
abomination  he  could  not  away  with. 
He  cut  down  the  Maypole  at  Merry 
Mount,  published  his  detestation  of 
long  hair  in  a  formal  proclamation, 
and  set  in  the  pillory  and  on  the  gal- 
lows the  returning  Quakers.  Infe- 
rior to  Winthrop  in  learning,  in  com- 
prehensiveness to  Vane,  in  tolerance 
even  to  Dudley,  he  excelled  them  all 
in  the  eye  keen  to  discern  the  fit 
moment  for  action,  in  the  quick  re- 
solve to  profit  by  it,  and  in  the  hand 
always  ready  to  strike."  See  note  ^ 
on  page  13. 


THE  HUMBLE  REQUEST, 


The  Hvmble  Reqvest  of  His  Majestie's  loyall  Subjects,  the 
Governour  and  the  Company  late  gone  for  New-England  ;  To 
the  rest  of  their  Brethren,  in  and  of  the  Church  of  England.  For 
the  obtaining  of  their  Prayers,  and  the  removall  of  suspitions, 
and  misconstructions  of  their  Intentions. 

London.     Printed  for  Iohn  Bellamie.     1630.     sm.  4to.  pp.  12. 


CHAPTER   XVI 


Reverend  Fathers  and  Brethren, 

The  general  rumor  of  this  solemn  enterprise,  chap. 

wherein  ourselves  with  others,   through  the  provi 

dence  of  the  Almighty,  are  engaged,  as  it  may  spare  .  ' 
us  the  labor  of  imparting  our  occasion  unto  you,  so  7. 
it  gives  us  the  more  encouragement  to  strengthen 
ourselves  by  the  procurement  of  the  prayers  and 
blessings  of  the  Lord's  faithful  servants.  For  which 
end  we  are  bold  to  have  recourse  unto  you,  as  those 
whom  God  hath  placed  nearest  his  throne  of  mercy ; 
which,  as  it  affords  you  the  more  opportunity,  so  it 
imposeth  the  greater  bond  upon  you  to  intercede  for 
his  people  in  all  their  straits.  We  beseech  you, 
therefore,  by  the  mercies  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  consi- 
der us  as  your  brethren,  standing  in  very  great  need 
of  your  help,  and  earnestly  imploring  it.  And  how- 
soever your  charity  may  have  met  with  some  occa- 
sion of  discouragement  through  the  misreport  of  our 
intentions,  or  through  the  disaffection  or  indiscretion 


296 


THE    HUMBLE    REQUEST 


pHAP.  of  some  of  US,  or  rather  amongst  us/  (for  we  are  not 
of  those  that  dream  of  perfection  in  this  world,)  yet 
we  desire  you  would  be  pleased  to  take  notice  of  the 
7V'  principals  and  body  of  our  Company,  as  those  who 
esteem  it  our  honor  to  call  the  Church  of  England, 
from  whence  we  rise,  our  dear  mother  ;  and  cannot 
part  from  our  native  country,  where  she  specially 
resideth,  without  much  sadness  of  heart  and  many 
tears  in  our  eyes,^  ever  acknowledging  that  such 
hope  and  part  as  we  have  obtained  in  the  common 
salvation,  we  have  received  in  her  bosom  and  sucked 
it  from  her  breasts.^  We  leave  it  not  therefore  as 
loathing  that  milk  wherewith  we  were  nourished 
there  ;  but,  blessing  God  for  the  parentage  and  edu- 
cation, as  members  of  the  same  body,  shall  always 
rejoice  in  her  good,  and  unfeignedly  grieve  for  any 
sorrow  that  shall  ever  betide  her,  and  while  we  have 
breath,  sincerely  desire  and  endeavour  the  continu- 
ance and  abundance  of  her  welfare,  with  the  enlarge- 
ment of  her  bounds  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  Jesus. 
Be  pleased,  therefore,  reverend  fathers  and  breth- 


'  There  may  be  an  allusion  here  you  leave  ns  or  stay  at  home  with 

to  the  case  of  the  Brownes.     See  us.      O  pray  for  the  peace  of  Jerusa- 

note  ''  on  page  287.  Zem;  they  shall  prosper  that  love  her. 

*  This  language,  so  full  of  sincere  As   God    continueth   his    presence 

and   tender   affection,    exposes   the  with  us,  (blessed  be  his  name!)  so 

falsity    of    Chalmers's     statement,  be   ye   present   in   spirit    with   us, 

where  he  speaks  of  "the   savage  though  absent  in  body.     Forget  not 

fury  with  which  they  deserted  their  the   womb   that  bare  you,  and  the 

'  native  land."     And  this  too  when  breasts  that  gave  you  suck.     Even 

he   himself    admits   that   they   had  ducklings,   hatched   under    a    hen, 

been  persecuted  in  England.     See  though   they   take   the   water,  yet 

Chalmers's  Pol.  Annals,  pages  152  will  still  have  recourse  to  the  wing 

and  U)5.  that  hatched  them  ;  how  much  more 

^  John  Cotton,   in  his  Discourse  should  chickens  of  the  same  feather 

entitled     "God's   Promise    to    his  and  yolk  !    In  the  amity  and  unity 

Plantation,"    p.    18,   delivered  just  of  brethren,  the  Lord  hath  not  only 

before   the   sailing    of  Winthrop's  promised  but  commanded  a  blessing, 

fleet,   said,    "  Be  not  unmindful  of  even  life  foreverraore."     See  note  ^ 

our  Jerusalem   at   home,    whether  on  page  126. 


OF    WINTHROP    AND    HIS    COMPANY.  297 

ren,  to  help  forward  this  work  now  in  hand  ;  which  chap. 
if  it  prosper,  you  shall  be  the  more  glorious,  howso-  — -1 
ever  your  judgment  is  with  the  Lord,  and  your  re-  ic^o. 
ward  with  your  God.  It  is  a  usual  and  laudable  ex-  7" 
ercise  of  your  charity,  to  commend  to  the  prayers  of 
your  congregations  the  necessities  and  straits  of  your 
private  neighbours  :  do  the  like  for  a  Church  spring- 
ing out  of  your  own  bowels.  We  conceive  much 
hope  that  this  remembrance  of  us,  if  it  be  frequent 
and  fervent,  will  be  a  most  prosperous  gale  in  our 
sails,  and  provide  such  a  passage  and  welcome  for  us 
from  the  God  of  the  whole  earth,  as  both  we  which 
shall  find  it,  and  yourselves,  with  the  rest  of  our 
friends,  who  shall  hear  of  it,  shall  be  much  enlarged 
to  bring  in  such  daily  returns  of  thanksgivings,  as 
the  specialties  of  his  providence  and  goodness  may 
justly  challenge  at  all  our  hands.  You  are  not  igno- 
rant that  the  spirit  of  God  stirred  up  the  apostle  Paul 
to  make  continual  mention  of  the  Church  of  Philippi, 
which  was  a  colony  from  Rome  ;  let  the  same  spirit, 
we  beseech  you,  put  you  in  mind,  that  are  the  Lord's 
remembrancers,  to  pray  for  us  without  ceasing,  who 
are  a  weak  colony  from  yourselves,  making  continual 
request  for  us  to  God  in  all  your  prayers. 

What  we  entreat  of  you,  that  are  the  ministers  of 
God,  that  we  also  crave  at  the  hands  of  all  the  rest 
of  our  brethren,  that  they  would  at  no  time  forget  us 
in  their  private  solicitations  at  the  throne  of  grace. 

If  any  there  be  who,  through  want  of  clear  in- 
telligence of  our  course,  or  tenderness  of  affection 
towards  us,  cannot  conceive  so  well  of  our  way  as 
we  could  desire,  w^e  would  entreat  such  not  to  de- 
spise us,  nor  to  desert  us  in  their  prayers  and  affec- 


298  THE     HUMBLE     HEQUEST. 

c'HAP.  tions,  but  to  consider  rather  that  they  are  so  much 

the  more  bound  to  express  the  bowels  of  their  com- 

^    passion   towards  us,  remembering   always  that  both 

7.     nature  and  grace  doth  ever  bind  us  to  relieve  and 

rescue,  with  our  utmost  and  speediest  power,  such 

as  are  dear  unto  us,  when  we  conceive  them  to  be 

running  uncomfortable  hazards. 

What  goodness  you  shall  extend  to  us  in  this  or 
any  other  Christian  kindness,  we,  your  brethren  in 
Christ  Jesus,  shall  labor  to  repay  in  what  duty  we 
are  or  shall  be  able  to  perform,  promising,  so  far  as 
God  shall  enable  us,  to  give  him  no  rest  on  your 
behalfs,^  wishing  our  heads  and  hearts  may  be  as 
fountains  of  tears  for  your  everlasting  welfare  when 
w^e  shall  be  in  our  poor  cottages  in  the  wilderness, 
overshadowed  with  the  spirit  of  supplication,  through 
the  manifold  necessities  and  tribulations  which  may 
not  altogether  unexpectedly,  nor,  we  hope,  unprofit- 
ably,  befall  us.  And  so  commending  you  to  the  grace 
of  God  in  Christ,  we  shall  ever  rest 

Your  assured  friends  and  brethren, 

John  Winthrope,  Gov.     Richard  Saltonstall, 
Charles  Fines,^  Isaac  Johnson, 

Thomas  Dudley, 
George  Phillifps,^  William  Coddington, 

&C.  &oC. 

From  Yarmouth,  aboard  the  Arlclla,  April  7,^  1630.^ 

'  Edward  Johnson,  who  was  one  ^  Fines  never  came  over.  He 
of  the  company  that  came  with  was  probably  a  relative,  perhaps  a 
Winthrop,  says,  "For  England's  brother,  of  William  Fiennes,  Vis- 
sake  they  are  going  from  England,  count  Saye  and  Sele.  In  company 
to  pray  without  ceasing  for  Eng-  with  his  noble  kinsman.  Sir  Richard 
land.  O  England  !  thou  shalt  find  Saltonstall,  John  Pym,  and  the  great 
New-England  prayers  prevailing  John  Hampden,  he  was  one  of  the 
with  their  God  for  thee."  See  his  patentees  named  in  the  grant  of 
Hist,  of  New-England,  ch.  12,  in  Connecticut  from  the  Earl  of  War- 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xii.  77.  wick,  in  1632,  and  is  there  styled 


GEORGE    PHILLIPS,  OF    WATEPvTOWN. 


299 


the  honorable  Charles  Fiennes, 
Esq.  See  Hazard's  State  Papers, 
i.  318,  and  TrumbuU"s  Connecticut, 
i.  495. 

^  The  Rev.  Georg-e  Phillips  was 
educated  at  Gonville  and  Caius 
College,  Cambridge,  where  he  took 
the  degree  of  A.  B.  in  1613,  and  of 
A.  M.  in  1617.  He  was  settled  in 
the  ministry  at  Boxted,  in  Essex. 
He  came  over  in  the  fleet  with  Gov. 
Winthrop,  and  united  with  Sir  Rich- 
ard Saltonstall  and  others  in  the  set- 
tlement of  Watertown,  of  which 
place  he  was  chosen  the  minister, 
and  remained  there  till  his  death, 
July  1,  1644.  Winthrop  calls  him 
"  a  godly  man,  specially  gifted,  and 
very  peaceful  in  his  place,  much  la- 
mented of  his  own  people  and 
others."  Dr.  Fuller,  of  New  Ply- 
mouth, in  a  letter  to  Gov,  Bradford, 
dated  Charlestown,  June  28,  1630, 
writes,  "Here  is  come  over,  with 
these  gentlemen,  one  Mr.  Phillips, 
a  Suffolk  man,  who  hath  told  me  in 
private,  that  if  they  will  have  him 
stand  minister  by  that  calling  which 
he  received  from  the  prelates  in 
England,  he  will  leave  them." 
Tradition  says  he  lived  in  the 
Sawin  house,  now  standing,  oppo- 
site the  old  burial-ground  in  Water- 
to^^•n.  His  son,  Samuel,  was  the 
minister  of  Rowley.  Most  of  the 
families  of  the  name  of  Phillips  in 
New-England,  are  descended,  it  is 
believed,  from  the  minister  of  Wa- 
tertown. See  Mather's  jNIagnalia, 
i.  339  ;  Savage's  Winthrop,  ii.  171; 
Francis's  Hist,  of  Watertown,  p.  33  ; 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  iii.  74,  xv.  186, 
xxviii.  248. 

*  This  was  the  day  before  they 
left  England.    See  page  127,  note  ^. 

*  Hubbard,  in  speaking  of  this 
beautiful  and  touching  Address,  re- 
marks, "It  is  commonly  said  that 
the  Declaration  was  drawn  up  by 
]Mr.  White,  that  famous  minister  of 
Dorchester,  of  whom  there  is  oft 
mention  made  in  this  History  ;  if  so, 
it  had  a  reverend,  learned  and  holy 
man  for  its  author."    It  seems  more 


probable,  however,  that  it  was  wTit-  CHAP. 
ten   by  Winthrop,  or   Johnson,   or    XVI. 

some  other  one  of  those  who  signed  

it.  "This  paper,"  says  Hutchin-  i6  30. 
son,  i.  19,  "  has  occasioned  a  dis- 
pute whether  the  first  settlers  of  the 
Massachusetts  were  of  the  Church 
of  England,  or  not."  It  has  also 
exposed  them  to  the  imputation  of 
inconsistency  and  insincerity.  But 
there  is  no  ground  for  such  an  im- 
putation. When  they  wrote  this 
letter,  they  belonged  to  the  Church 
of  England.  They  disliked  her  cer- 
emonies, indeed,  and  abjured  her 
errors,  but  had  never  renounced  her 
fellowship.  They  were  Puritans, 
Nonconformists,  but  not  Separatists, 
differing  in  this  respect  from  the 
Colonists  of  New  Pl3rmouth.  It 
was  not  till  they  were  in  the  wilder- 
ness, far  away  from  the  pursuivants 
and  the  bishops,  that  they  set  up 
churches  of  their  own,  independent 
of  their  mother  Church.  It  should 
be  recollected,  too,  that  this  Fare- 
well Letter  was  addressed  not  to  the 
persecuting  prelates  who  had  driven 
them  into  the  wilderness,  but  to 
"  their  brethren  of  the  Church  of 
England."  There  were  many  in 
the  Church  at  this  time,  both  among 
the  clergy  and  laity,  who  were  sigh- 
ing for  purity  and  reform,  as  much 
so  as  those  that  emigrated,  and  were 
prevented  from  emigrating  either  by 
the  lack  of  means  or  resolution,  or 
perhaps  preferred  to  remain  at  home 
and  see  what  they  could  do  there  in 
the  way  of  church  reformation. 
With  all  such  the  departing  colo- 
nists wished  to  hold  spiritual  com- 
munion, to  retain  their  fellowship, 
and  be  benefited  by  their  prayers. 
The  foregoing  paper  is  printed 
from  the  original  edition  of  1630,  a 
copy  of  which  is  preserved  among 
the  books  in  Prince's  New-England 
Library.  It  was  probably  publish- 
ed immediately  after  the  sailing  of 
Winthrop's  fleet,  in  April.  See 
Mather's  Magnalia,  i.  69-71  ; 
Prince's  Annals,  282-307 ;  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.  XV.  126  ;  Chronicles  of 
Plymouth,  pp.  416,  435. 


DUDLEY'S  LETTER 
TO   THE   COUNTESS  OF  LINCOLN. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

DEPUTY  GOVERNOR  DUDLEY'S  LETTER. 

To  the  Right  Honorable,  my  very  good  Lady, 

The  Lady  Bridget,  Countess  of  Lincoln} 

Madam, 

Your  letters  (which  are  not  common  nor  cheap,) 
following  me  hither  into  New-England,  and  bringing 
with  them  renewed  testimonies  of  the  accustomed 
favors  you  honored  me  with  in  the  Old,  have  drawn 
from  me  this  narrative  retribution,  which,  (in  respect 
of  your  proper  interest  in  some  persons  of  great  note 
amongst  us,)^  was  the  thankfullest  present  I  had  to 
send  over  the  seas.      Therefore  I  humbly  entreat 


^  The  wife  of   Theophilus,   the  Deputy  Governor  in  England,  Oct. 

fourth  earl  of  Lincoln,  and  daughter  20,  1629,   but  did  not  come  over  till 

of  the  Viscount  Saye  and  Sele. —  1632.     See  pp.  106  and  127.    This 

Dudley   had   been   steward   in    the  family  had  a  more  intimate  connec- 

family.     See  note  ^  on  page  75  in  tion  with  the   New-England  settle- 

the  Chronicles  of  Plymouth.  ments,  and   must  have  felt  a  deeper 

^  The  Lady  Arbella,  the  wife  of  interest  in  their  success,  than  any 

Isaac  Johnson,  who  came  over  with  other  noble  house  in  England.    Cot- 

Winthrop,  was  the  sister  of  the  Earl  ton  Mather  speaks  of  the  family  as 

of  Lincoln.     The   Lady  Susan,  an-  "religious,"   and  "  the  best  family 

other  sister,  was  married  to  John  of  any  nobleman  then  in  England." 

Humphrey,  who  had  been  chosen  See  Mather's  Magnalia,  i.  126. 


304 


THOMAS    DUDLEY,  OF    ROXBURY. 


CHAP,  your  Honor   this  be  accepted  as  payment  from  him 

^— —  who  neither  hath  nor  is  any  more  than 

1631.  Your  Honor's 

^11^^  Old  thankful  servant, 


T.  D.^ 


Boston,  in  New-England,  March  I2t.h,  1630.- 


For    the   satisfaction   of  your   Honor    and   some 
friends,  and  for   the  use  of  such  as  shall  hereafter 


^  Thomas  Dudley,  the  author  of 
this  letter,  and  one  of  the  leading 
planters  of  Massachusetts,  was  born 
at  Northampton,  in  1577,  being  the 
only  son  of  Capt.  Roger  Dudley, 
who  was  killed  in  battle.  Young 
Dudley  was  brought  up  in  the  fam- 
ily of  the  Earl  of  Northampton,  and 
afterwards  became  a  clerk  to  his 
maternal  kinsman,  Judge  Nichols, 
and  thus  obtained  some  knowledge 
of  the  law,  which  proved  of  great 
service  to  him  in  his  subsequent  life. 
At  the  age  of  20,  he  received  a 
captain's  commission  from  Queen 
Elizabeth,  and  commanded  a  com- 
pany of  volunteers,  under  Henry  IV. 
of  France,  at  the  siege  of  Amiens, 
in  1597.  On  the  conclusion  of  peace 
the  next  year,  he  returned  to  Eng- 
land, and  settled  near  Northampton, 
where  he  was  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Dod,  Hildersham,  and  other  emi- 
nent Puritan  divines,  and  became 
himself  a  Nonconformist.  After 
this,  he  was  for  nine  or  ten  years 
steward  to  Theophilus,  the  young 
Earl  of  Lincoln,  who  succeeded  to 
his  father's  title  Jan.  15,  1619. 
But  becoming  desirous  of  a  more 
retired  life,  he  removed  to  Boston, 
in  Lincolnshire,  where  he  enjoyed 
the  acquaintance  and  ministry  of  tlie 
Rev.  John  Cotton.  He  was  after- 
wards prevailed  upon  by  the  Earl  of 
Lincoln  to  resume  his  place  in  his 
family,  where  he  continued  till  the 
storm  of  persecution  led  him  to  join 
the  company  that  v.'ere  meditating  a 
removid  to  New-England.     He  was 


one  of  the  signers  of  the  Agreement 
at  Cambridge,  Aug.  29,  1629,  and 
we  find  him  present  for  the  first 
time  at  the  Company's  courts,  on 
the  16th  of  October.  When  Win- 
throp  was  chosen  Governor,  he  was 
made  an  Assistant ;  and  on  Hum- 
phrey's declining  to  go  over  with 
the  Charter,  he  was  elected  Deputy 
Governor  in  his  place.  He  was 
continued  in  the  magistracy  from 
the  time  of  his  arrival  in  New-Eng- 
land till  his  death,  having  been  cho- 
sen Governor  in  1634  and  three  times 
afterwards,  and  Deputy  Governor 
thirteen  times.  In  1644  he  was  ap- 
pointed the  first  Major  General  of  the 
Colony.  He  was  the  principal 
founder  of  Newtown,  now  Cam- 
bridge, and  was  very  desirous  to 
have  it  made  the  metropolis.  On 
Mr.  Hooker's  removal  to  Hartford 
in  1636,  he  removed  to  Ipswich,  and 
afterwards  to  Roxbury,  where  he 
died  July  31,  1653,  in  his  77th  year. 
His  son  Joseph  was  Governor,  and 
his  grandson  Paul  Chief  Justice,  of 
the  Province  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bay.  His  eldest  son,  Samuel,  mar- 
ried Mary,  daughter  of  Gov.  Win- 
throp,  and  his  daughter  Ann,  who 
was  a  poetess,  was  maiTied  to  Gov. 
Bradstreet.  See  Mather's  Magna- 
lia,  i.  120-123  ;  Hutchinson's  Mass. 
i.  14,  183;  Savage's  Winthrop,  i. 
50  ;  Morton's  Memorial,  p.  255  ; 
and  note  ^  on  page  125. 

^  That  is,  old  style,  the  new  year 
beginning  on  the  25th  of  March. 
Sec  note  ''  on  page  138. 


CHICKATALBOT,  OF    NEPONSET.  305 

intend  to  increase  our  Plantation  in  New-En<>:lancl,  I  chap. 

.  .  O  5  XVII. 

nave,  m  the  throng  of  domestic,   and  not  altogether 

free  from  public  business,^  thought  fit  to  commit  to  i^^i. 
memory  our  present  condition,  and  what  hath  befal-  [l.^ 
len  us  since  our  arrival  here  ;  which  I  will  do  short- 
ly, after  my  usual  manner,  and  must  do  rudely,  hav- 
ing yet  no  table,  nor  other  room  to  write  in  than  by 
the  fireside  upon  my  knee,  in  this  sharp  winter  ;  to 
which  my  family  must  have  leave  to  resort,  though 
they  break  good  manners,  and  make  me  many  times 
forget  what  I  would  say,  and  say  what  I  would  not. 

*  *  *  ^  sachim  in  New-England,  w^hom  I  saw  the 
last  summer.  Upon  the  river  of  Naponset,^  near  to 
the  Mattachusetts  fields,'*  dwellethChickatalbott,^who 
hath  between  fifty  and  sixty  subjects.  This  man 
least  favoreth  the  English  of  any  sagamore  (for  so 
are  the  kings  with  us  called,  as  they  are  sachims 
southwards,)  we  are  acquainted  with,  by  reason  of 
the'old  quarrel  between  him  and  those  of  Plymouth, 
wherein  he  lost  seven  of  his  best  men;°  yet  he  lodg- 
ed one  night  the  last  winter  at  my  house  in  friendly 

^  Dudley,  it  will  be  recollected,  plague,  who  caused  it  to  be  cleared 

was  at  this  time  Deputy  Governor  for  himself."     Wood's  New-Eng- 

of  the  Colony.     See  page  127.  land's  Prospect,  part  i.  ch.  10. 

^  A  part  of  the  MS.  is  here  miss-  ^  This,  no  doubt,  is  the  sagamore 
ing,  probably,  however,  only  a  few  mentioned  in  the  preceding  note, 
lines,  which  may  have  contained  a  His  residence,  according  to  Wood's 
description  of  the  bays  and  rivers,  map,  made  in  1633,  was  on  the  east- 
followed  by  a  brief  notice  of  the  In-  ern  bank  of  the  Neponset,  in  Quin- 
dian  tribes  living  on  them.  cy,  probably  not  far  from  Squantum. 

^  The  Neponset   river   separates  He  died  in  November,  1633,   with 

Dorchester  from  Quincy  and  Milton,  many  of  his  people,  of  the  small  pox. 

*  "Three  miles  to  the  north  of  See  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  48,  115  ; 

Wessaguscus,     (Wejanouth,)       is  Drake's  Book  of  the  Indians,  book 

Mount  Wollaston,  (in    Quincy.)  —  ii.  43  ;  and  Chronicles  of  Plymouth, 

This  place   is  called  Massachusetts  note  ■*  on  page  226. 

Fields ;  where  the  greatest  sagamore  ®  See  Chronicles   of   Plymouth, 

in  the   country    lived,    before    the  page  339. 
20 


I 


306 


THE    INDIANS    OF    NEW-ENGLAND. 


manner.  About  seventy  or  eighty  miles  westward 
from  these  are  seated  the  Nipnett^  men,  whose 
^^^^-  sagamore  we  know  not,  but  we  hear  their  numbers 
exceed  any  but  the  Pecoates~  and  the  Narragan- 
sets,^  and  they  are  the  only  people  we  yet  hear  of  in 
the  inland  country.  Upon  the  river  of  Mistick  is 
seated  sagamore  John,''  and  upon  the  river  of  Saugus 


March 
12 


'  The  Nipnets,  or  Nipmiicks, 
(Iweh  chiefly  about  the  great  ponds 
in  Webster,  Massachusetts  ;  but 
their  territory  extended  southward 
into  Connecticut  more  than  twenty 
miles.  They  were  partly  tributary 
to  the  Narragansetts,  and  partly  to 
the  Massachusetts  Indians.  The 
Blackstone  river  was  originally  the 
Kipmuck  river.  See  the  map  of 
New-England  in  Hubbard's  Indian 
Wars,  printed  in  1677,  which  was 
copied  and  prefixed  to  Judge  Da- 
vis's edition  of  Morton's  Memorial ; 
Trumbull's  Connecticut,  i.  43  ; 
Hutchinson's  Massachusetts,  i.  459; 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  i.  147,  148,  185, 
189-194. 

^  The  Pcquods,  the  most  warlike 
and  formidal)le  tribe  of  Indians  in 
New-England,  dwelt  between  the 
Thames  and  Pawcatuck  rivers,  in 
Connecticut,  their  chief  seats  and 
forts  being  at  New-London,  Croton, 
and  the  head  of  Mystick  river.  In 
1637,  they  were  completely  subdued 
and  nearly  exterminated  by  the  Con- 
necticut and  Massachusetts  forces 
Tinder  the  command  of  Captains 
John  Mason,  John  Underbill,  and 
Israel  Stougliton.  There  are  four 
contemporaneous  Narratives  of  the 
Pequot  War,  written  by  Mason, 
Ilnderhill,  Lion  Gardiner,  and  P. 
Vincent,  which  are  contained  in 
the  Ma.ss.  Hist.  Coll.  xviii.  120-153, 
xxiii.  131-161,  xxvi.  1-13.  But 
the  best  History  of  it,  with  an  illus- 
trative map,  will  be  found  in  the 
Rev.  George  E.  Ellis's  Life  of  Ca.pt. 
John  Mason,  in  Sparks's  Am.  Biog. 
xiii.  310-405.     See  also  Hubbard's 


Indian  Wars,  p.  116  ;  Trumbull's 
Connecticut,  i.  41  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
i.  147. 

^  The  Narragansetts,  a  numerous 
and  powerful  body  of  Indians,  dwelt 
between  Pawcatuck  river,  along  the 
coast  from  Stonington  round  P(;int 
Judith,  and  on  the  bay  in  Rhode 
Island  called  by  their  name.  On 
the  nortii  their  territory  was  bound- 
ed by  the  Quinebaug  and  Nipmuck 
countries.  See  Hutchinson's  Mass. 
i.  457  ;  Potter's  Early  Hist,  of  Nar- 
ragansett,  pp.  1-11  ;  Mass.  Hist. 
Coll.  v.  239,  xviii.  122,  xxi.  210. 

^  His  Indian  name  was  Wonoha- 
quaham.  He  lived  upon  the  neck 
of  land  in  Maiden,  which  lies  be- 
tween Maiden  river  and  the  creek 
that  separates  the  neck  from  Chel- 
sea ;  but  his  territory  also  included 
Winesemett,  afterwards  called  Rum- 
ney  Marsh,  and  now  Chelsea.  He 
died  Dec.  5,  1633,  of  the  small  pox, 
and  almost  all  his  people,  more  than 
thirty  of  whom  were  buried  in  one 
day  by  Mr.  Maverick,  who  lived  at 
Noddle's  Island,  now  East  Boston. 
The  Charlestown  Records  speak  of 
him  as  "of  a  gentle  and  good  dis- 
position," that  he  "  loved  the  Eng- 
lish, and  gave  them  permission  to 
settle  here."  He  left  one  son, 
whom  he  commended  to  the  care  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson,  of  Boston. 
See  Lewis's  Lvnn,  pp.  16,  17; 
Felfs  Salem,  i'  13,  16;  Hutchhi- 
son's  Mass.  i.  461  ;  Savage's  Win- 
tin-op,  i.  49,  119,  120;  New-Eng- 
land's First  Fruits,  p.  2  ;  and  the 
map  in  Wood's  New-England's 
Prospect,  made    in   1633,   which  is 


THE    SAGAMORES    OF    NEW-ENGLAND.  307 

sasramore  James, ^  his  brother,  both  so  named  by  the  chap. 

^  .  XVII. 

English.     The   elder  brother,  John,  is  a  handsome 

young  man,  [one  line  missing]  conversant  with  us,  i63i. 
affecting  English  apparel  and  houses,  and  speaking  *  j^*^ 
well  of  our  God.  His  brother  James  is  of  a  far  worse 
disposition,  yet  repaireth  often  to  us.  Both  these 
brothers  command  not  above  thirty  or  forty  men,  for 
aught  I  can  learn.  Near  to  Salem  dwelleth  two  or 
three  families,"  subject  to  the  sagamore  of  Agawam, 
whose  name^  he  told  me,  but  I  have  forgotten  it. 
This  sagamore  hath  but  few  subjects,  and  them  and 
himself  tributary  to  sagamore  James,  having  been 
before  the  last  year  (in  James's  minority)  tributary 
to  Chickatalbott.  Upon  the  river  Merrimack  is  seat- 
ed sagamore  Passaconaway,"*  having  under  his  com- 
mand four  or  five  hundred  men,  being  esteemed  by 
his  countrymen  a  false  fellow,  and  by  us  a  witch. 
For  any  more  northerly,  I  know  not,  but  leave  it  to 
after  Relations. 

Having  thus  briefly  and  disorderly,  especially  in 
my  description  of  the  bays  and  rivers,  set  down  what 
is  come  to  hand  touching  the  [one  line  missing.] 

Now   concerning    the    English    that    are    planted 

copied  and  inserted  in  a  subsequent  and  south  side  of  that  river  was  to- 

part  of  this  volume.  gether    called    Xaurnkeke."      See 

'  His  Indian  name   was   j\Ionto-  Felt's  Salem,  i.  14. 

wompate.      His   territory   included  ^  His  name  was  Masconnomo,  or 

the   towns   of  Saugus,  Lynn,    and  Masconnomet.     He  came  on  board 

]\Iarblehead.     He  also  died  in  Dec.  Winthrop's  ship  the   day  after  his 

1633,  of  the  small  pox,  "and  most  arrival  at   Salem  ;    and   by  a   deed 

of  his  folks."    Consult  the  map  and  dated  June  28,  1638,  he  sold  to  John 

references  in  the  preceding  note.  Winthrop,   jr.     for    X20,    all    the 

^  The  Rev.  John  Higginson  says,  lands  lying  around  the  bay  of  Aga- 

that  when  he  came  over  with  his  wam,   or   Ipswich.     See    Savage's 

father  in  1629,  "  the  Indian  town  of  Winthrop,  i.  27  ;  and  Felt's  Histo- 

wigwams  was  on  the  north  side  of  ry  of  Ipswich,  pp.  3  and  8. 

the   North  river,   not  far  from   Si-  "  ^   See    Chronicles  of  PljTnouth, 

monds'o,  and  then  both  the  north  note  -  on  page  366. 


308  THE  COLONY  OF  NEW  PLYMOUTH. 

CHAP,  here,  I  find  that  about  the  year  1620,  certam  English 

XVII.  ... 

> — ~  set  out  from  Leyden,  in  Holland,  intending  their  course 
1620.  for  Hudson's  river,  the  mouth  whereof  lieth  south  of 
the  river^  of  the  Pecoates,  but  ariseth,  as  I  am  in- 
formed, northwards  in  about  43°,  and  so  a  good  part 
of  it  within  the  compass  of  our  patent.  These,  being 
much  weather-beaten  and  wearied  with  seeking  the 
river,^  after  a  most  tedious  voyage^  arrived  at  length 
in  a  small  bay  lying  north-east^  from  Cape  Cod  ; 
Dec.  where  landing  about  the  month  of  December,  by  the 
^^"  favor  of  a  calm  winter,  such  as  w^as  never  seen  here 
since,  begun  to  build  their  dwellings  in  that  place 
which  now  is  called  New  Plymouth ;  where,  after 
much  sickness,  famine,  poverty,  and  great  mortality, 
(through  all  wdiich  God  by  an  unwonted  providence 
carried  them,)  they  are  now  grown  up  to  a  people 
healthful,  wealthy,  politic  and  religious  ;  such  things 
doth  the  Lord  for  those  that  wait  for  his  mercies. 
These  of  Plymouth  came  with  patents  from  King 
James,^  and  have  since  obtained  others  from  our 
sovereign.  King  Charles,*^  having  a  governor  and 
council  of  their  own. 
162  2.  There  was  about  the  same  time  one  Mr.  Weston, 
an  English  merchant,  who  sent  divers  men  to  plant 
and  trade,  who  sat  down  by  the  river  of  Wesaguscus. 

'  The  Thames,    in   Connecticut,  ■*  Plpnouth  harbour  lies  due  west 
running-  from  Norwich  to  New  Lon-  from  Cape  Cod. 
don,  and  emptying  into  Long  Island  ^  Not  so.     They  had  only  a  pa- 
Sound,  tent  from   the   Virginia   Company. 

^  From  his  silence  on  the  point,  it  See  Chronicles  of  Plymouth,  pages 

would  seem  that  Dudley  had  never  7-4  and  383. 

heard  of  the  alleged  treachery  of  the  ®  Another  mistake.     This  second 

captain  of  the  Mayflower  in  carrying  patent  was  not  from  the  King,  but 

the  Pilgrims  north  of  Hudson's  riv-  from  the  Council  for  New-England, 

er.     See  Chronicles  of  IMymouth,  See  Prince's  Annals,  pp.  268-270  ; 

p.  101,  note  ^.  Chalmers's  PoHtical  Annals  of  the 

^  The  voyage  was  64  days  long.  United  Colonies,  p.  97. 
See  Chronicles  of  Plymouth,  p.  105. 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  MASSACHUSETTS  COLONY.        309 

But  these  comine;  not  for  so  2:ood  ends  as  those  of  chap. 

"WTT 

Plymouth,   sped  not  so  well ;  for  the  most  of  them  ^ 

dying  and  languishing  away,  they  who  survived  were 
rescued  by  those  of  Plymouth  out  of  the  hands  of  ifiss. 
Chickatalbott  and  his  Indians,  who  oppressed  these 
weak  English,  and  intended  to  have  destroyed  them, 
and  the  Plymotheans  also,  as  is  set  down  in  a  tract 
written  by  Mr.  Winslow,  of  Plymouth.^ 

Also,   since,   one  Captain  Wollaston,  with  some  16  25. 
thirty  with  him,  came  near  to  the  same  place,  and 
built  on  a  hill  w^hich  he  named  Mount  Wollaston.^ 
But  being  not    supplied   with   renewed  provisions, 
they  vanished  away,  as  the  former  did.  16  26. 

Also,  divers  merchants  of  Bristow^,  and  some  other 
places,  have  yearly  for  these  eight  years,  or  there-  1623- 
abouts,^  sent  ships  hither  at  the  fishing  times  to  trade 
for  beaver  ;  where  their  factors  dishonestly,  for  their 
gains,  have  furnished  the  Indians  w^th  guns,  swords, 
powder  and  shot.^ 

Touching  the  Plantation  which  we  here  have  be-  i62  7. 
gun,  it  fell  out  thus.  About  the  year  1627,  some 
friends  being  together  in  Lincolnshire,^  fell  into  dis- 
course about  New-England,  and  the  planting  of  the 
Gospel  there  ;  and  after  some  deliberation  we'^  im- 
parted our  reasons,  by  letters  and  messages,  to  some 
in  London^  and  the  west  country  ;^  where  it  was 
likewise  deliberately  thought  upon,  and  at  length  with 
often  negotiation  so  ripened,  that  in  the  year  1628^  16  2  8. 

*  See   Chronicles   of  Plymouth,  ®  Of  course  the  %vriter,  Dudley, 
pp.  296-312,  327-345.  was  one  of  them. 

*  In  Quincy.  See  Hubbard,  p.  102,  ^  See  pages  12  and  29. 
and  Prmce,  pp.  231  and  240.  «  See  pages  5,  21,  22,  29. 

^  See  note  '^  on  page  5.  ^  The  Charter  from  the  King  is 

*  See  note  *  on  page  84.  dated  ]\Iarch  4,  1628,  that  is,  1629, 
^  See  note  ^  on  page  48.  new  style. 


310  ENDICOTT    SENT    OVER. 

CHAP,  we  procured    a    patent  from  his  Majesty   for    our 
planting  between  the  Mattachusetts  Bay  and  Charles 

1628.  river  on  the  south,  and  the  river  of  Merrimack 
on  the  north,  and  three  miles  on  either  side  of 
those  rivers  and  bay  ;  as  also  for  the  government  of 
those  who  did  or  should  inhabit  within  that  compass. 

"^20®  And  the  same  year  we  sent  Mr.  John  Endecott,^  and 
some  with  him,  to  begin  a  Plantation,  and  to  strength- 
en such  as  he  should  find  there,  which  we  sent 
thither  from  Dorchester^  and  some  places  adjoining. 
From  whom  the  same  year  receiving  hopeful  news, 

1629.  the  next  year,  1629,  we  sent  divers  ships  over,  with 
^PJ"!^   about  three  hundred  people,^  and  some  cows,  goats 

and  ^      /  . 

May.    and  horses,''  many  of  which  arrived  safely. 

These,  by  their  too  large  commendations  of  the 
country  and  the  commodities  thereof,^  invited  us  so 
strongly  to  go  on,  that  Mr.  Winthrop,  of  Suffolk, 
(who  was  well  known  in  his  own  country,  and  well 
approved  here  for  his  piety,  liberality,  wisdom,  and 
gravity,)  coming  in  to  us,  we  came  to  such  resolu- 

1630.  tion,  that  in  April,  1630,  we  set  sail  from  Old  Eng- 
"^P"^   land  with  four  good  ships. "^     And  in  May  following 


'  See  pages  13,  30.  Cowes,   March    28,    1630,"   says, 

^  See  pages  23-29.  "  We  have  only  four  ships  ready. 

*  Higginson's  company.  See  The  rest  of  our  fleet,  being  seven 
pages  14,  215-238.  ships,  will   not  be  ready  this  sen'- 

■*  Prince,   page  257,   quoting  the  night.     We  are,  in   all  our  eleven 

Company's  Records,  says  140  head  ships,  about  seven  hundred  persons, 

of  cattle,    and    adds,    that    Dudley  passengers,   and   two   hundred    and 

seems   too   short  in   his  statement,  forty  cows,  and  about  sixty  horses. 

See  note  ^  on  page  66.  The   ship   which   went   from   Ply- 

'"  He  probably  alludes  to  Iliggin-  mouth    [the  Mary  &  John]   carried 

son's  and    Graves's  description   of  about  one  hundred  and  forty  persons, 

the  country  and  its  advantages.    See  and  the   ship  which  goes  from  Bris- 

pages  243  and  204.  towe     [the    Lion]     carrieth    about 

*  The  Arbella,  the  Talbot,  the  eighty  persons."  The  whole  num- 
Ambrose,  and  the  Jewel.  Win-  her  in  these  thirteen  vessels  then 
throp,  writing  to  his  wife  "  from  w;is  020  persons  ;  and  as  the  Hand- 
aboard  the  Arbclla,  ridiiig  at  the  maid   brought   about  sixty  passen- 


GOVERNOR  WINTHROP  S  FLEET. 


311 


ei2;ht  more  followed  ;    two  having  srone   before    in  chap. 

&  '  ,  XVII. 

February   and  March,^  and   two  more  following  in 

June  and  August,  besides  another  set  out  by  a  pri-  ^^^^* 
vate  merchant.  These  seventeen  ships  arrived  all 
safe  in  New^-England,^  for  the  increase  of  the  Planta- 
tion here  this  year  1630,  but  made  a  long,  a  trouble- 
some, and  costly  voyage,  being  all  wind-bound  long 
in  England,^  and  hindered  with  contrary  winds  after 
they  set  sail,  and  so  scattered  with  mists  and  tem- 
pests that  few  of  them  arrived  together.  Our  four 
ships  which  set  out  in  April  arrived  here  in  June 
and  July,  where  we  found  the  Colony  in  a  sad  and 
unexpected  condition,  above  eighty  of  them  being 
dead  the  winter  before  ;  and  many  of  those  alive 
weak  and  sick ;  all  the  corn  and  bread  amongst  them 
all  hardly  sufficient  to  feed  them  a  fortnight,  inso- 


June 

and 

July. 


gers,  the  emigrants  amounted  cer-  ^  The  Lion,  Capt.  William  Peirce, 

tainly  to  980.     See  note  ^  on  page  from  Bristol,  and  the  Mary  &  John, 

127,  and  Savage's  Wintluop,  i.  37,  Capt.  Squeb,  from  Plpnouth. 
368. 

*  We  are   indebted  to  Prince  for  the  following  table  : 

A  list  of  Ships  ivhich  arrived  in  New-England  this  year. 


Lion 

Marv  &  John    .  .   . 

Arhella     

.Jewel 

Ambrose 

Talbot 

Mayflower 

Whale 

Hopewell 

William  &  Francis. 

Trial 

Charles 

Success 

Gift 

Another 

Handmaid 

<  Another  set  out  l.y 
I    a  private  merchant 


England. 
Bristol, 
Plymouth, 

j  Yarmouth, 
).  at  the  Isle 
I    ofWi^ht, 


Southampton. 


When  set  sail.    When  arrived.  I      Where  arrived. 


1(330. 

Fell. 

March  20. 
April  8, 


May, 


June, 


1630. 
May, 
May  30, 
June  12, 
"     13, 

"     1^, 
July  2, 

'     1, 


Aug.  20, 
Oct.  29, 


New-England: 
Salem. 
IN'antasket. 


u 


Salem. 


Charlestown. 

[Salem.] 

^  Charlestown. 
\  Salem. 

[Salem.] 

Charlestown. 

Plymouth. 


See  pages   125-127,  and  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  1-5. 


I 


312  REMOVAL    TO    CHARLESTOWN. 

CHAP,  much  that  the  remainder  of  a  hundred  and  eisfhty 

XVII.  ^     -^ 

servants  we  had   the   two  years  before    sent  over, 

163  0.  commg  to  us  for  victuals  to  sustain  them,  we  found 
ourselves  wholly  unable  to  feed  them,  by  reason  that 
the  provisions  shipped  for  them  were  taken  out  of  the 
ship  they  were  put  in,  and  they  who  were  trusted  to 
ship  them  in  another  failed  us  and  left  them  behind  ; 
whereupon  necessity  enforced  us,  to  our  extreme 
loss,  to  give  them  all  liberty,  who  had  cost  us  about 
£16  or  <£20  a  person,  furnishing  and  sending  over. 
But  bearing  these  things  as  we  might,  we  began 
to  consult  of  the  place  of  our  sitting  down ;  for  Sa- 
lem, where  we  landed,  pleased  us  not.^  And  to  that 
17.  purpose,  some  were  sent  to  the  Bay,~  to  search  up 
the  rivers  for  a  convenient  place  ;  who,  upon  their 
return,  reported  to  have  found  a  good  place  upon 
Mistick  ;^  but  some  other  of  us,  seconding  these,  to 
approve  or  dislike  of  their  judgment,  we  found  a 
place  [that]  liked  us  better,  three  leagues  up  Charles 
river ;''  and  thereupon  unshipped  our  goods  into 
other  vessels,  and  with  much  cost  and  labor  brought 
July,  them  in  July  to  Charlestown.     But  there  receiving 

'  "  For  the  capital  town,"  says  emor's  island,   and  even  then  the 

Prince,  p.  308.  distance  up  the  river  would  hardly 

*  Massachusetts  Bay,  that  is,  be  three  leagues.  But  distances  at 
Boston  harbour,  "  made,"  as  Wood  this  time  were  computed,  not  meas- 
says,  "  by  a  great  company  of  isl-  ured,  and  of  course  could  not  be 
ands,  whose  high  cliffs  shoulder  out  very  exact.  Dr.  Fuller,  of  Ply- 
the  boisterous  seas."  See  note  ^  on  mouth,  in  a  letter  to  Gov.  Bradford, 
page  4,  and  N.  E.  Prospect,  ch.  1.  written  from  Charlestown,  June  28, 

^  "  We   went    up   Mistick   river  says,   "  The  gentlemen  here  lately 

about  six  miles,"   says  Winthrop,  come  over  are  resolved  to  sit  down 

i.  27.  at  the  head  of  Charles  river,    and 

*  Probably  at  the  place  afterwards  they  of  Matapan  (Dorchester)  pur- 
called  Newtown  and  Cambridge,  and  pose  to  go  and  plant  with  them.  I 
not  Watertown,  as  Prince,  p.  308,  have  been  at  Matapan,  at  the  request 
suggests  ;  for  Watertown  is  after-  of  Mr.  Warham,  and  let  some  twen- 
wards  mentioned  as  a  place  distinct  ty  of  these  people  blood."  See 
from   this.       The  reckoning    must  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  iii.  74. 

have  been  from  Conant's  or  Gov- 


THE    SETTLEMENT    OF    BOSTON. 


313 


advertisements,  by  some  of  the  late  arrived  ships,  chap. 

from  London  and  Amsterdam,  of  some  French  pre 

parations  against  us,  (many  of  our  people  brought  16  30. 
with  us  being  sick  of  fevers  and  the  scurvy,  and  we  "  ^°' 
thereby  unable  to  carry  up  our  ordnance  and  bag- 
gage so  far,)  we  were  forced  to  change  counsel,  and 
for  our  present  shelter  to  plant  dispersedly,  some  at 
Charlestown,^  which  standeth  on  the  north  side  of 
the  mouth  of  Charles  river  ;  some^  on  the  south  side 
thereof,  which  place  we  named  Boston,^  (as  we  in- 
tended to  have  done  the  place  we  first  resolved  on;) 
some  of  us  upon  Mistick,  which  we  named  Medford;^ 
some^  of  us  westwards  on  Charles  river,  four  miles 
from  Charlestown,  which  place  we  named  Water- 
town  ;*"  others  of  us  two  miles  from  Boston,  in  a  place 


^  At  the  head  of  whom  was  In- 
crease Nowell.  See  note  ^  on  page 
262. 

^  Among  whom  were  Winthrop, 
Johnson,  Coddington,  and  Wilson. 

^  At  "  a  Court  of  Assistants  hold- 
en  at  Charlton,  the  7th  of  Septem- 
ber, 1630,  it  is  ordered  that  Tri- 
mountain  shall  be  called  Boston, 
Mattapan  Dorchester,  and  the  town 
upon  Charles  river  Waterton." — 
"  Thus  this  remarkable  Peninsula, 
about  two  miles  in  length  and  one 
in  breadth,  in  those  times  appearing 
at  high  water  in  the  form  of  two 
islands,  whose  Indian  name  was 
Shaivmut,  but  I  suppose  on  account 
of  three  contiguous  hUls  appear- 
ing in  a  range  to  those  at  Charles- 
town,  by  the  English  called  at  first 
Trimountnin ,  now  receives  the 
name  of  Boston.''^  Prince's  An- 
nals, p.  315.  See  note  ^  on  p.  48  ; 
Wood's  N.  E.  Prospect,  part  i. 
ch.  10  ;  and  Snow's  Hist,  of  Bos- 
ton, p.  32. 

*  This  was  where  Cradock's  men 
had  commenced  a  plantation,  on  the 
north  side  of  Mj'stick  river,  in  the 


present  towm  of  ISIalden,  and  a  dif- 
ferent location  from  the  present 
town  of  Medford.  See  AVood's  N. 
E.  Prospect,  part  i.  ch.  10  ;  Hutch- 
inson's Mass.  i.  22  ;  and  the  very 
thorough  note  on  pp.  89-93  of 
Frothingham's  History  of  Charles- 
town. 

^  The  chief  of  whom  were  Sir 
Richard  Saltonstall  and  the  Rev. 
George  Phillips. 

^  Hubbard  says,  p.  135,  "  The 
reason  of  the  name  was  not  left  upon 
record,  nor  is  it  easy  to  find  ;  most 
of  the  other  Plantations  being  well 
watered,  though  none  of  them  plant- 
ed on  so  large  a  fresh  stream  as  that 
was."  Farmer  says,  "  It  seems 
highly  probable  that  it  was  derived 
from  Waterton,  a  small  place  in  the 
West  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  and  not 
far  from  Halifax,  the  residence  of 
Gilbert  Saltonstall,  the  ancestor  of 
Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  who  was 
one  of  the  principal  settlers  of  our 
W^atertown,  and  who  might,  from 
some  local  attachment  or  other  cir- 
cumstance, have  given  this  name  to 
the  tract   '  westwards  on    Charles 


314  MORTALITY  IN  THE  COLONY. 

CHAP,  we   named  Rocksbury  ;^    others   upon    the  river  of 

Sau2;us,"  between  Salem  and  Charlestown  ;   and  the 

16  30.  western   men^  four  miles  south  from  Boston,   at  a 
"^'  place  we  named  Dorchester. 

This  dispersion  troubled  some  of  us  ;  but  help  it 
we  could  not,  wanting  ability  to  remove  to  any  place 
fit  to  build  a  town  upon,  and  the  time  too  short  to 
deliberate  any  longer,  lest  the  winter  should  sur- 
prise us  before  we  had  builded  our  houses.  The 
best  counsel  we  could  find  out  was  to  build  a  fort  to 
retire  to,  in  some  convenient  place,  if  any  enemy 
pressed  us  thereunto,  after  we  should  have  fortified 
ourselves  against  the  injuries  of  wet  and  cold.  So 
ceasing  to  consult  further  for  that  time,  they  who  had 
health  to  labor  fell  to  building,  wherein  many  were 
interrupted  with  sickness,  and  many  died  w^eekly, 
yea,  almost  daily. ^  Amongst  whom  were  Mrs.  Pyn- 
chon,^  Mrs.  Coddington,*^  Mrs..  Phillips,^  and  Mrs. 
Alcock,^  a  sister   of  Mr.  Hooker's. °     Insomuch  that 


river.'     The  early   spelling  of  the  dead.     The    Lord    in    mercy   look 

name,    which    is    Watcrtun    in    the  upon  them  !  I  can  do  them  no  good, 

earliest  records,  and  throughout  this  for  I  want  drugs,  and  things  fitting 

letter,   except  in   the   above  single  to  work  with.     Mrs.  Coddington  is 

instance,   seems  to  give  some  sup-  dead."     See  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  iii. 

port  to   this   conjecture."        But    I  7G. 

can  find  no  such  place  as  Waterton  ^  The  wife  of  William  Pynchon, 

on  any  map  of  England,   or  in   any  one  of  the  Assistants,  an  account  of 

Gazetteer.     See   Francis's   Water-  whom  is  given  on  page  283,  note  ''. 

town,    p.  11,  and  New  Hampshire  ^  The  wife  of  William  Codding- 

Hist.  Coll.  iv.  231.  ton,  another  of  the  Assistants. 

'  At    the    head    of  whom    was  '  T'he  wife  of  the   Rev.  George 

William    Pynchon,    mentioned    on  Phillips.     See  note  ^  on  page  299. 

j)age  283.  **  'l"he  wife  of    George  Alcock, 

^  Afterwards  called  Lynn.     See  deacon  of  the  church  in  Dorchester, 

note  ^  on  page  1G9.  and    afterwards   of    the   church  in 

'  These   were  Ludlow,  Rossiter,  Roxbury.     He  was  a  representative 

Warham,  Maverick,  and  their  asso-  from  the  latter  town  at  the  first  Ge- 

ciates,  who  came  in  the  Mary  &  John,  neral  Court,  May  11,1634,  and  died 

*  Dr.    Fuller,    writing    to    (Jov.  December  30,  1640.     See   Prhice's 

]}radford  from  Charlestown,  August  Annals,  p.  399. 

2,  says,    "The  sad   news  here  is,  ^  The  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker,  who 

that  many  are  sick,  and  many  are  came  over  with  John  Cotton  ui  Sept. 


A    HUNDRED    RETURN    IN    THE    SHIPS.  315 

the  ships  being  now  upon  their  return,  some  for 
England,  some  for  Ireland,  there  was,  as  I  take  it, 
not  much  less  than  a  hundred,  (some  think  many 
more,)  partly  out  of  dislike  of  our  government,  which 
restrained  and  punished  their  excesses,  and  partly 
through  fear  of  famine,  not  seeing  other  means  than 
by  their  labor  to  feed  themselves,  which  returned 
back  again  ;^  and  glad  were  we  so  to  be  rid  of  them. 
Others  also,  afterwards  hearing  of  men  of  their  own 
disposition,  which  were  planted  at  Pascataway,^  went 
from  us  to  them  ;  whereby  though  our  numbers 
were  lessened,  yet  we  accounted  ourselves  nothing 
weakened  by  their  removal.  Before  the  departure 
of  the  ships,  we  contracted  with  Mr.  Peirce,  master 
of  the  Lion,  of  Bristow,  to  return  to  us  with  all  speed 
with  fresh  supplies  of  victuals,  and  gave  him  direc- 
tions accordingly.  With  this  ship  returned  Mr.  Re- 
vell,^  one  of  the  five  undertakers   here  for  the  joint 


1633,  and  settled  at  Cambridge,  but  been  sent  out  by  Gorges  and  Mason 

in    1636    removed   to   Hartford,  on  and  certain  merchants  who    styled 

Connecticut  river.  themselves  "  The  Company  of  La- 

'  How  different  was  this  from  the  conia."  In  1628,  Piscataqua  was 
conduct  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Pljmiouth.  assessed  £2  10s.  for  the  campaign 
Although  of  tire  hundred  persons  against  INIorton,  of  Mount  Wollas- 
who  came  in  the  Mayflower,  forty-  ton,  a  sum  equal  to  that  paid  by 
four,  nearly  a  half,  had  died  before  Pl}'Tnouth  ;  and  yet,  in  1631,  there 
she  returned  to  England,  yet  not  one  were  but  three  houses  on  the  river, 
of  the  survivors  embarked  in  her.  In  1653,  w'hen  the  name  of  "  Straw- 
See  Chronicles  of  PljTnouth,  note  ^  berry  Bank"  was  exchanged  for 
on  page  199.  Portsmouth,  there  were  but  fifty  or 

^  In  the  spring  of  1623,  a  settle-  sixty  families  there.  See  Belknap's 

ment  was  commenced  at  two  differ-  New  Hampshire,    (Farmer's  edit.) 

ent   places   on   the   Piscataqua,  by  pp.  4-9,  431  ;    Adams's  Annals  of 

David  Thompson,  and  Edward  and  Portsmouth,  pp.  10,  11  ;  Mass.  Hist. 

William  Hilton.     Thompson  plant-  Coll.  iii.  63  ;    Prince's  Annals,  pp. 

ed  himself  on  the  southern  shore  of  215,  239,  268  ;  Hubbard,  214-219; 

the  river,   at  its  mouth,  which  he  Chronicles   of  Pl}Tnouth,    pp.  251, 

called   Little  Harbour,   and  built  a  351. 

house    on  a  peninsula,  now  called  ^  John  Revell  never  returned  to 

Odiorne's  Point.    The  Hiltons  seat-  New-England.      Mr.   Savage   sug- 

ed   themselves   eight  miles  up  the  gests   that    "he  was  probably  too 

river,  at  Dover.     Both  parties  had  rich  to  adventure  life  and   fortune 


316 


WILLIAM    VASSALL    AND    FRANCIS    BRIGHT. 


CHAP,  stock  of  the  Company/  and  Mr.  Vassall,*  one  of  the 
-^ — ~  Assistants,  and  his  family,  and  also  Mr.  Bright,^   a 
1630.  minister  sent  hither  the  year  before. 
"^'        The  ships  being  gone,  victuals  wasting,  and  mor- 
tality increasing,  we  held  divers  fasts  ^  in  our  several 


with  us."  He  had  been  chosen  one 
of  the  Assistants  Oct.  20,  1629,  and 
he  was  one  of  the  merchant  adven- 
turers interested  in  the  Plymouth 
Colony.  See  pages  106  and  116  ; 
Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  20  ;  and 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  iii.  48. 

'  See  page  110. 

^  William  Vassall,  as  well  as  his 
brother  Samuel,  mentioned  on  page 
89,  were,  according  to  Hutchinson, 
gentlemen  of  good  circumstances  in 
England.  He  came  back  in  1635, 
and  settled  at  Scituate,  in  Plymouth 
Colony.  In  1646  he  returned  to 
England,  and  in  1048  removed  to 
Barbadoes,  and  there  died  in  1655. 
Winthrop  speaks  of  him  as  "a  man 
of  a  busy  and  factious  spirit,  and 
always  opposite  to  the  civil  govern- 
ment of  this  country  and  the  way  of 
our  churches."  He  left  a  son  John 
in  Scituate,  who  removed  from  that 
town  in  1661.  The  Vassalls  of 
Quincy  and  Cambridge  were  de- 
scendants of  Samuel.  See  Savage's 
Winthrop,  ii.  261,  321  ;  Hutchin- 
son's Mass.  i.  17,  145  ;  Deane's 
Hist,  of  Scituate,  60-89,  366-370  ; 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xiv.  244  ;  Harris's 
Cambridge  Epitaphs,  p.  179. 

^  Francis  Bright  was  the  son  of 
Edward  Bright,  of  London,  and  was 
born  in  1602.  He  was  matriculated 
at  New  College,  Oxford,  Fel).  18, 
1624,  but  probably  left  without  tak- 
ing a  degree.  In  the  Company's 
Instructions  to  Endicott,  on  page 
143,  he  is  said  to  have  been  "  some 
time  trained  up  under  Mr.  Daven- 
port," and  in  his  Agreement,  on 
p.  207,  he  is  called  "  of  Rayleigh, 
in  Essex,"  where  he  probably  had 
a  lectureship.  Soon  after  his  arri- 
val at  Salem,  June  29,  1629,  he 
went  to  Charlcstown,  in  the  records 


of  which  place  he  is  called  "  minis- 
ter to  the  Company's  servants." 
As  the  Lion  sailed  in  August,  he 
was  in  the  country  only  about  a 
year.  Edward  Johnson,  who  came 
in  Winthrop 's  fleet,  says,  "  All  this 
while  little  likelihood  there  was 
building  the  temple  for  God's  wor- 
ship, there  being  only  two  that  be- 
gan to  hew  stones  in  the  mountains, 
the  one  named  Mr.  Bright,  and  the 
other  Mr.  Blaxton  ;  and  one  of  them 
began  to  budd.  But  when  they  saw 
all  sorts  of  stones  would  not  fit  in 
the  building,  as  they  supposed,  the 
one  betook  him  to  the  seas  again, 
and  the  other  to  till  the  land,  retain- 
ing no  symbol  of  his  former  profes- 
sion but  a  canonical  coat."  On  the 
strength  of  this,  Hubbard  calls  him 
a  Conformist,  and  so  does  Morton. 
But  the  Company  say  in  their  Let- 
ter, that  "  the  ministers  have  de- 
clared themselves  to  us  to  be  of  one 
judgment,  and  to  be  fully  agi-eed  on 
the  manner  how  to  exercise  their 
ministry."  See  note  *  on  p.  160, 
and  note  ^  on  p.  169  ;  Morton's  Me- 
morial, p.  145  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
XV.  112,  113,  xii.  70,  xxviii.  250. 

■*  Their  first  fast  was  kept  Friday, 
July  30,  when  Winthrop,  Dudley, 
Johnson,  and  Wilson  entered  into 
church  covenant,  and  laid  the  found- 
ation of  the  church  of  Charlestown, 
which  is  now  the  fust  church  of 
Boston.  The  day  was  also  observ- 
ed by  their  brethren  of  Plymouth  in 
their  behalf.  Another  fast  was 
kept  Aug.  27,  when  John  Wilson 
was  ordained  teacher,  Increase 
Nowell  ruling  elder,  and  William 
C4ager  and  William  Aspinwall  dea- 
cons. See  Morton's  Memorial, 
p.  159  ;  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  31 ; 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  iii.  75. 


FRANCIS    HIGGINSON    DIES. 


317 


congregations.  But  the  Lord  would  not  yet  be  de-  c^^ap. 
precated  ;  for  about  the  begmning  of  September  died 
Mr.  Gager/  a  right  godly  man,  a  skilful  chirurgeon, 
and  one  of  the  deacons  of  our  congregation ;  and 
Mr.  Higginson,^  one  of  the  ministers  of  Salem,  a  zeal- 
ous and  a  profitable  preacher — this  of  a  consumption, 
that  of  a  fever  ;  and  on  the  30th  of  September  died  30. 
Mr.  Johnson,^  another  of  the  five  undertakers,  (the 


'  William  Gager  died  Sept.  20. 
At  the  first  Court  of  Assistants, 
held  Aug.  23,  it  was  "ordered  that 
l\Ir.  Gager  should  have  a  house 
builded  him  against  the  next  spring, 
is  to  have  a  cow  given  him,  and  £20 
in  money  for  this  year,  to  begin  the 
20th  June,  1630,  and  after  £30  per 
annum  ;  and  all  this  to  be  at  the 
common  charge."  His  son  John 
went  with  the  younger  Winthrop 
to  New  London,  and  in  1660  was 
one  of  the  founders  of  Norwich, 
where  his  descendants  still  remain. 
William  Gager  graduated  at  Yale 
College  in  1721,  and  was  ordained 
minister  of  the  second  church  of 
Lebanon,  May  27,  1725.  See  Ha- 
zard's State  Papers,  ii.  412  ;  Trum- 
bull's Connecticut,  ii.  532  ;  Caulk- 
ins's  Hist,  of  Norwich,  p.  103. 

*  Francis  Higgixson  was  bom 
in  1588,  and  was  educated  at  Jesus 
College,  Cambridge,  where  he  took 
the  degree  of  A.  B.  in  1609,  and 
received  the  degree  of  A.  M.  from 
St.  John's  College  in  1613.  He 
was  a  minister  of  one  of  the  five 
parish  churches  of  J  aicester,  but 
tlirough  his  intimacy  with  Hilder- 
sham  and  Hooker,  and  his  study  of 
the  Scriptures,  he  became  a  Non- 
conformist. He  was  accordingly 
excluded  from  his  pulpit  ;  but  a  lec- 
tureship was  established  for  him,  in 
which  he  was  maintained  by  the 
voluntary  contribution  of  the  inhab- 
itants. He  was  in  this  situation 
when  invited  by  the  New-England 
Company  to  go  over  to  their  Plant- 
ation. See  p.  65.  He  was  ordain- 
ed at  Salem  Aug.  6, 1629,  and  lived 


only  a  year  afterwards.  Mather 
says  the  last  sermon  he  preached 
was  to  Winthrop  "s  company  on 
their  arrival  at  Salem,  from  jMatth. 
xi.  7,  What  went  ye  out  into  the  wil- 
derness to  see  ?  He  left  a  wife  and 
eight  children,  who  after  his  death 
removed  to  CharlestowTi,  and  then 
to  New-Haven.  The  portrait  at  the 
State  House  in  Boston  is  not  his, 
but  his  son  John's.  See  note  ^  on 
page  211,  and  note  ^  on  page  236  ; 
INIather's  Magnalia,  i.  322. 

^  Isaac  Johnson  was  of  Clips- 
ham,  in  the  county  of  Rutland,  son 
of  Abraham  Johnson,  Esq.  He  was 
the  largest  subscriber  to  the  joint 
stock  of  the  Company,  and  in  April, 
1629,  he  valued  his  interest  in  the 
New-England  adventure  at  jC600. 
His  landed  estate  lay  in  the  counties 
of  Rutland,  Northampton,  and  Lin- 
coln. He  left  no  children.  In  his 
last  will,  dated  March  8,  1630,  a 
month  before  he  sailed,  of  which 
will  the  great  John  Hampden 
was  one  of  the  executors,  he  left 
some  part  of  his  personal  estate  to 
the  Governor  and  Company.  In  a 
previous  will,  dated  April  28,  1629, 
he  gave  to  the  Rev.  John  Cotton, 
from  whom  he  acknowledges  to  have 
received  much  help  and  comfort  in 
his  spiritual  state,  i-30  and  a  gown- 
cloth,  and  to  him  and  Mr.  Dudley 
he  gave  the  right  of  presentation  to 
the  parish  church  of  CUpsham. 
Prince  says,  that  Chief  Justice  Se- 
wall  informed  him  that  I\Ir.  Johnson 
was  the  principal  cause  of  settling 
the  town  of  Boston,  and  so  of  its 
becoming  the  metropolis  ;  that  he 


318 


ISAAC    JOHNSON    AND    HIS    WIFE. 


1630. 

Sept. 
30. 


Oct. 
23. 


lady  Arbella,^  his  wife,  being  dead  a  month  before.) 
This  gentleman  was  a  prime  man  amongst  us,  having 
the  best  estate  of  any,  zealous  for  religion,  and  the 
greatest  furtherer  of  this  Plantation.  He  made  a  most 
godly  end,  dying  willingly,  professing  his  life  better 
spent  in  promoting  this  Plantation  than  it  could  have 
been  any  other  way.  He  left  to  us  a  loss  greater  than 
the  most  conceived.  Within  a  month  after,  died  Mr. 
Rossiter,"  another  of  our  Assistants,  a  godly  man, 
and  of  a  good  estate  ;  which  still  weakened  us  more. 


had  removed  hither,  and  had  chosen 
for  his  lot  the  great  square,  lying 
between  Tremont,  Court,  Washing- 
ton and  School  streets.  Tradition 
places  his  house  about  the  centre  of 
the  north-east  side,  that  is,  near  the 
present  site  of  the  Court  House. 
He  was  buried,  at  his  own  request, 
at  the  upper  end  of  his  lot,  on  Tre- 
mont-street,  which  was  the  origin 
of  the  first  burial  ground  in  the  town, 
adjoining  King's  Chapel.  Win- 
throp,  i.  34,  says  "  he  was  a  holy 
■man,  and  wise,  and  died  in  sweet 
peace,  leaving  some  part  of  his  sub- 
stance to  the  Colony."  Edward 
Johnson,  who  came  in  the  fleet  with 
him,  says  that  "  the  Lord  had  in- 
dued him  with  many  precious  gifts, 
insomuch  that  he  was  had  in  high 
esteem  among  all  the  people  of  God, 
and  as  a  chief  pillar  to  support  this 
new-erected  building.  He  very 
much  rejoiced,  at  his  death,  that  the 
Lord  had  been  pleased  to  keei)  his 
eyes  open  so  long,  as  to  see  one 
church  of  Christ  gathered  before  his 
death  ;  at  W'hose  departure  there 
was  not  only  many  weeping  eyes, 
but  some  fainting  hearts,  fearing  the 
fall  of  the  present  work."  Sec 
Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  16  ;  Prince's 
Annals,  pp.  316,  318,  333  ;  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.  xii.  87,  xxviii.  244  ; 
Snow's  Boston,  p.  36. 

'   The    Lady   Arbella   was    a 
daughter  of  Thomas,  the  third  Earl 


of  Lincoln.  Hubbard  says  that  she 
came  "  from  a  paradise  of  plenty 
and  pleasure,  which  she  enjoyed  in 
the  family  of  a  noble  Earldom,  into 
a  wilderness  of  wants,"  and  Mather 
adds,  that  "  she  took  New-England 
in  her  way  to  heaven."  Johnson 
says  that  the  name  of  the  ship  Eagle 
had  been  changed  to  Arbella,  in 
honor  of  her,  and  that  after  the  ar- 
rival of  the  fleet,  she  "  and  some 
other  godly  women  al)ode  at  Salem, 
but  their  husbands  continued  at 
Charlestown,  both  for  settling  the 
civil  government,  and  gathering  an- 
other church  of  Christ."  Dr.  Holmes 
says,  Annals,  i.  206,  "  Dr.Holyoke, 
of  Salem,  aged  99,  informs  me  that 
she  was  buried  about  half  a  mile 
distant  from  the  body  of  the  town, 
near  Bridge-street,  leading  to  Bev- 
erly, about  ten  feet  from  the  street." 
The  Johnson  Grammar  School,  for 
girls,  in  Boston,  was  so  called  as  a 
mark  of  respect  to  her  name  and 
memory.  See  Mather's  Magnalia, 
i.  71,  340  ;  Chronicles  of  Plymouth, 
p.  75;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. "xii.  79, 
86,  XV.  132. 

^  Edward  Rossiter  was  of  a  good 
family  in  the  west  of  England,  and 
one  of  the  founders  of  Dorchester. 
His  son  lived  afterwards  at  Combe, 
in  England,  and  his  grandson,  Ed- 
ward, was  deacon  of  the  church  in 
Taunton  in  1682.  See  Hutcliinson's 
Mass.  i.  17. 


TWO    HUNDRED    DIE. 


319 


So  that  now  there  were  left  of  the  five  undertakers  ^ 
but  the  Governor,  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  and  my- 
self, and  seven  other  of  the  Assistants."  And  of  the  i63o. 
people  who  came  over  with  us,  from  the  time  of  their 
setting  sail  from  England  in  April,  1630,  until  De- 
cember following,  there  died  by  estimation  about  two 
hundred  at  the  least 


so  low  hath  the  Lord  brought 


us 


|3 


Well,  yet  they  who  survived  were  not  discouraged, 
but  bearing  God's  corrections  with  humility,  and 
trusting  in  his  mercies,  and  considering  how,  after  a 
lower    ebb,    he    had    raised  up   our  neighbours  at 


'  See  page  116. 

*  Endicott,  Ludlow,  Nowell,  Pyn- 
chon,  Coddington,  Bradstreet,  and 
Thomas  Sharpe.  See  pp.  106,  127. 

*  Gov.  Winthrop,  in  his  Journal 
WTites,  "  The  poorer  sort  of  people, 
who  lay  long  in  tents,  were  much 
afflicted  with  the  scurvy,  and  many 
died,  especially  at  Boston  and 
Charlestown  ;"  and  writing  to  his 
wife  under  date  of  Sept.  9  and  Nov. 
29,  he  says,  "the  lady  Arhella  is 
dead,  and  good  Mr.  Higginson,  my 
servant,  old  Waters  of  Neyland, 
and  many  others.  —  I  have  lost 
twelve  of  my  family,  viz.  Waters 
and  his  wife,  and  two  of  his  child- 
ren, Mr.  Gager  and  his  man  Smith 
of  Buxall,  and  his  wife  and  two 
children,  the  wife  of  Taylor  of  Ha- 
verhill and  their  child  ;  my  son  H. 
makes  the  twelve.  And,  besides 
many  other  of  less  note,  as  JefF. 
Ruggle  of  Sudbury,  and  divers 
others  of  that  town,  (about  twenty,) 
and  one  of  L.  Kedby  his  sons,  the 
Lord  hath  stripped  us  of  some  prin- 
cipal persons,  Mr.  Johnson  and  his 
lady,  Mr.  Rossiter,  Mrs.  Phdlips, 
and  others  unknown  to  thee.  We 
conceive  that  this  disease  grew  from 
ill  diet  at  sea,  and  proved  infec- 
tious." Winthrop's  History,  i.  44, 
377,  379. 


Henry  Winthrop,  the  Governor's 
second  son,  who  had  accidentally 
been  left  behind  at  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  was  unfortunately  drowned 
in  a  small  creek  at  Salem,  on  the 
2d  of  July,  the  very  day  he  landed. 
He  was  in  his  twenty-third  year. 
He  left  his  wife,  Elizabeth,  behind 
in  England,  and  an  only  daughter, 
Martha,  who  was  baptized  May  9, 
1630.  His  father,  in  his  first  letter, 
dated  Jvdy  16,  to  his  own  wife,  who 
also  was  obliged  to  remain  behind 
in  England,  writes,  "We  have  met 
with  many  sad  and  discomfortable 
things,  as  thou  shalt  hear  after ; 
and  the  Lord's  hand  hath  been 
heavy  upon  myself  in  some  very 
near  to  me.  My  son  Henry  !  my 
son  Henry  !  Ah,  poor  child  !  Yet 
it  grieves  me  much  more  for  my 
dear  daughter.  The  Lord  strengthen 
and  comfort  her  heart  to  bear  this 
cross  patiently.  I  know  thou  wilt 
not  be  wanting  to  her  in  this  dis- 
tress. Yet,  for  all  these  things,  (I 
praise  my  God,)  I  am  not  discour- 
aged ;  nor  do  I  see  cause  to  repent 
or  despair  of  those  good  days  here, 
which  will  make  amends  for  all." 
See  Savage's  "Winthrop,  i.  7,  29, 
372;  Hubbard's  Hist.  p.  131  ;  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  296,  297. 


320  A    FORTIFIED    TOWN    CONTEMPLATED. 

CHAP.  Plymouth,  we  began  again  in  December  to  consult 

about  a  fit  place   to  build  a  town  upon,  leaving  all 

1630.  thoughts  of  a  fort,  because  upon   any  invasion  we 

D6C. 

were  necessarily  to  lose  our  houses,  when  we  should 
retire  thereinto.  So  after  divers  meetings  at  Boston, 
28.  Roxbury,  and  Waterton,  on  the  28th  of  December 
we  grew  to  this  resolution,  to  bind  all  the  As- 
sistants (Mr.  Endicott  and  Mr.  Sharpe  excepted, 
which  last  purposeth  to  return  by  the  next  ship  into 
England,)  to  build  houses  at  a  place  a  mile  east  from 
Waterton,  near  Charles  river, ^  the  next  spring,  and 
to  winter  there  the  next  year  ;  that  so  by  our  exam- 
ples, and  by  removing  the  ordnance  and  munition 
thither,  all  who  were  able  might  be  drawn  thither, 
and  such  as  shall  come  to  us  hereafter,  to  their 
advantage  be  compelled  so  to  do ;  and  so,  if  God 
would,  a  fortified  town  might  there  grow  up,  the 
place  fitting  reasonably  well  thereto. 

I  should  before  have  mentioned  how  both  the  Eng- 
lish and  Indian  corn  being  at  ten  shillings  a  strike,^ 
and  beaver  being  valued  at  six  shillings  a  pound,  we 
made  laws  to  restrain  the  selling  of  corn  to  the  In- 
dians, and  to  leave  the  price  of  beaver  at  liberty,^ 
which  was  presently  sold  for  ten  and  twenty  shillings 
a  pound.  I  should  also  have  remembered,  how  the 
half  of  our  cows  and  almost  all  our  mares  and  goats, 
sent  us  out  of  England,  died  at  sea  in  their  passage 
hither,  and  that  those  intended  to  be  sent  us  out  of 
Ireland  were  not  sent   at   all  ;   all   which,   together 

*  Winthrop,  i.   39,  says,  "  Dec.  about  it."     This  was  at  Newtown, 

21,  we  met  again  at   Watertown,  afterwards  called  Cambridge, 
and  there,  upon  a  view  of  a  place  a         ^  Strike,  a  bushel, 
mile  beneath  the  town,  all  agreed  it         ^  These    orders   were   passed  at 

a  fit  place  for  a  fortified  town,  and  the  two   Courts  of  Assistants  held 

we   took   time  to   consider   further  tSept.  28  and  Nov.  9. 


Psah 
cxii. 


MORTON,  OF    MOUNT    WOLLASTON.  321 

with  the  loss  of  our  six  months'  buildinof,  occasioned  chap. 

.  XVII. 

by  our  intended  removal  to  a  town  to  be  fortified,  ^^— - 
weakened  our  estates,  especially  the  estates  of  the  i^^^- 
undertakers,^  who  were  3  or  ^£4000  engaged  in  the 
joint  stock,  which  was  now  not  above  so  many  hun- 
dreds. Yet  many  of  us  labored  to  bear  it  as  com- 
fortably as  we  could,  remembering  the  end  of  our 
coming  hither,  and  knowing  the  power  of  God,  who 
can  support  and  raise  us  again,  and  useth  to  bring 
his  servants  low  that  the  meek  may  be  made  glorious 
by  deliverance. 

In  the  end  of  this  December  departed  from  us  the  Dec. 
ship  Handmaid,  of  London,  by  which  we  sent  away 
one  Thomas  Morton,~  a  proud,  insolent  man,  who  has 
lived  here  divers  years,  and  had  been  an  attorney  in 
the  west  countries  while  he  lived  in  England.  Mul- 
titude of  complaints  were  received  against  him  for 
injuries  done  by  him  both  to  the  English  and  Indians ; 

^  Seepage  116.  sent  home   a  second  time,  by  the 

^  Thomas  Morton,  if  we  may  he-  Massachusetts  government,   he  did 

lieve  his  own  statement,  first  came  all  he  could,  in  conjunction  with  Sir 

to  New-England  in  1622  ;  and  if  so,  Christopher  Gardiner  and  its  other 

he  was  probably  one  of  Weston's  enemies,  to  injure  the  Colony,  and 

imfortunate  colony,  which  arrived  in  in  1637  published  a  scurrilous  book 

June   of  that  year,  and   settled   at  against  it,  entitled   "  New-English 

Wessaguscus,  now  Weymouth.    In  Canaan."      He  returned   to   New- 

1625  he  was  with  Wollaston's  com-  England  in  Dec.  1643,  when  he  was 

pany  at  Quincy  ;  and  on  Wollaston's  called  to  account  for  his  malprac- 

departure  for  Virginia,  Morton  be-  tices.      His    book    and  an    abusive 

came  such  a  troublesome  and  dan-  letter  which  he  had  written,  were 

gerous   neighbour,  by  sellmg   guns  produced   against   him,  and  he  was 

and  ammunition  to  the  natives,  that  imprisoned   about   a   year,    and    in 

in  1628  the  scattered  plantations  in  Sept.  1644,  fined  £100.    Not  being 

New-England   combined,    and   em-  able  to  pay  the  fine,  he  was  pennit- 

ployed  Capt.  Standish  to  apprehend  ted  to  escape,  and  went  to  Agamen- 

him.     He  was  sent  prisoner  to  Eng-  ticus,    in    Maine,   where    he  died, 

land  in  the  custody  of  John  Oldham,  in    1645   or   1646.      See    Morton's 

but  returned  in  August,  1629,  and  Memorial,   pp.    135-142 ;  Savage's 

took  up  his  abode  again  at  Merry  Winthrop,  i.  34,  138,  ii.  151,   189- 

Mount,  as  he  called  it.    It  was  dur-  92;  Mass.  Hist.   Coll.  iii.   61-64, 

ing  his  absence  in  England  that  En-  Chronicles  of  Plymouth,  pp.   296, 

dicott   visited   the   Mount,  and  cut  334  ;    Morton's   New-English   Ca- 

down   the   Maypole.     After  being  naan,  ch.  2. 

21 


322  SAMUEL    MAVERICK,  OF    NODDLE's    ISLAND. 

CHAP,  and  amongst  others,  for  shooting  hail-shot  at  a  troop 

of  Indians  for  not  bringing  a  canoe  unto  him  to  cross 

1030.  g^   river    withal  ;     whereby   he   hurt   one,   and  shot 

Dgc 

through  the  garments  of  another.  For  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  Indians  wherein,  and  that  it  might  appear 
to  them  and  to  the  English  that  we  meant  to  do  jus- 
tice impartially,  we  caused  his  hands  to  be  bound 
behind  him,  and  set  his  feet  in  the  bilboes,  and  burn- 
ed his  house  to  the  ground,  all  in  the  sight  of  the 
Indians,  and  so  kept  him  prisoner  till  we  sent  him 
for  England  ;  whither  we  sent  him,  for  that  my  Lord 
Chief  Justice  there  so  required,  that  he  might  punish 
him  capitally  for  fouler  misdemeanours  there  perpe- 
trated, as  we  were  informed. 

I  have  no  leisure  to  review  and  insert  things  for- 
gotten, but  out  of  due  time  and  order  must  set  them 
down  as  they  come  to   memory.     About  the  end  of 
Oct.    October  this  year,  1630,  I  joined  with  the  Governor 
and  Mr.  Maverecke^   in  sending  out  our  pinnace  to 

*  Samuel  Maverick  was  found  murtherers  to  protect  him  from  the 
here  by  Gov.  Winthrop,  on  his  Indians."  Gov.  Winthrop  says,  on 
arrival  in  June,  1G30,  living  at  his  first  visit  to  the  Bay  from  Salem, 
Nottle's  Island,  now  East  Boston.  "June  17,  we  lay  at  Mr.  Mave- 
How  long  he  had  lived  there,  is  un-  rick's."  Josselyn,  who  was  here 
known.  As  he  was  not  assessed  in  1638,  says,  "  July  10,  I  went 
for  the  campaign  against  Morton,  in  ashore  upon  Noddle's  island,  to  Mr. 
1628,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  he  Samuel  Maverick,  the  only  hospita- 
did  not  come  over  till  the  following  ble  man  in  all  the  country,  giving 
year.  Edward  Johnson,  one  of  entertainment  to  allcomers  gratis;" 
Winthrop's  company,  says,  that  and  Henry  Gardner,  in  his  New- 
"  on  the  north  side  of  Charles  river,  England's  Vindication,  p.  9,  (Lon- 
they  landed  near  a  small  island,  don,  1660,)  speaks  of  him  as  "  the 
called  Noddle's  island,  where  one  most  hospitable  for  entertainment  of 
Mr.  Samuel  Mavereck  was  then  liv-  people  of  all  sorts."  Winthrop  tells 
ing,  a  man  of  a  very  loving  and  us  in  his  Journal,  under  July,  1637, 
courteous  behaviour,  very  ready  to  that  "  Mr.  Vane  went  over  to  Not- 
entertain  strangers,  yet  an  enemy  to  tie's  island  to  dine  with  Mr.  Mave- 
the reformation  in  liand, being  strong  rick,  and  carried  the  Lord  Ley  with 
for  the  lordly  prelatical  power.  On  him."  This  characteristic  hospital- 
this  island  he  had  built  a  small  fori ,  ity  of  Mr.  Maverick  appears  to  have 
witli  the  help  of  one  Mr.  David  been  at  times  somewhat  trouble- 
Thompson,    placing     therein    four  some,  for  at  a  General  Court  held 


RHODE    ISLAND    DISCOVERED.  323 

the  Narragansetts,  to  trade  for  corn  to  supply  our  <-'hap. 

wants  ;  but  after  the  pinnace  had  doubled  Cape  Cod, ^ 

she  put  into  the  next  harbour^  she  found,  and  there  i^so. 
meeting  with  Indians,  who  showed  their  willingness 
to  truck,  she  made  her  voyage  there,  and  brought  us 
a  hundred  bushels  of  corn,  at  about  four  shillings  a 
bushel,  which  helped  us  somewhat.  From  the  coast 
where  they  traded,  they  saw  a  very  large  island,- 
four  leagues  to  the  east,  which  the  Indians  commend- 
ed as  a  fruitful  place,  full  of  good  vines,  and  free 
from  sharp  frosts,  having  one  only  entrance  into  it, 
by  a  navigable  river,  inhabited  by  a  few  Indians, 
which  for  a  trifle  would  leave  the  island,  if  the  Eng- 
lish would  set  them  upon  the  main  ;  but  the  pinnace 
having  no  direction  for  discovery,  returned  without 
sailing  to  it,  which  in  two  hours  they  might  have 
done.  Upon  this  coast  they  found  store  of  vines  full 
of  grapes  dead  ripe,  the  season  being  past ;  whither 
we  purpose  to  send  the  next  year  sooner,  to  make 
some  small  quantity  of  wine,  if  God  enable  us  ;  the 
vines  growing  thin  with  us,  and  we  not  having  yet 
any  leisure  to  plant  vineyards.^ 

But  now  having  some  leisure  to  discourse  of  the 
motives  for  other  men's  coming  to  this  place,  or  their 

March  4,  1635,    it   was    "ordered,  also    Winnisimet     ferry,    both     to 

that   Mr.    Samuel   Maverick   shall,  Charlestown  and  Boston.     He  died 

before  the  last  of  December  next,  March   10,    1664.     See  Winthrop, 

remove  his  habitation  for  himself  and  i.  27,  232,  ii.  51  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 

his   family  to   Boston,   and   in   the  xii.  86,  xxui.  220. 
mean  time  shall  not  give  entertain-         *  Probably  the  harbour  of  Chat- 

ment   to    any  strangers   for   longer  ham,  called  by  the   Indians    Mana- 

times  than  one  night,  without  leave  raoyk.    See  Chronicles  of  Plymouth, 

from  some   Assistant  ;  and  all  this  pages  217  and  300. 
to   be    done  under   the   penalty   of        ^  This  was  no  doubt  the   island 

£100."    This  order,  however,  w^as  of  Aquethneck,     afterwards  called 

repealed  in  the  following  September.  Rhode  Island.     Prince,  p.  323. 
The  island  on   which  he  lived  had         ^  See  pages  152  and  247 
been  granted  him  April  1,  1633,  and 


324  THE  ENCOURAGEMENTS  TO  PLANTERS. 

CHAP,  abstaining  from  it,  after  my  brief  manner  I  say  this  : 

. <~  that  if  any  come  hither  to  plant  for  worldly  ends,  that 

1631.  can  live  well  at  home,  he  commits  an  error,  of  which 
he  will  soon  repent  him  ;  but  if  for  spiritual,  and  that 
no  particular  obstacle  hinder  his  removal,  he  may 
find  here  what  may  well  content  him,  viz.  materials 
to  build,  fuel  to  burn,  ground  to  plant,  seas  and 
rivers  to  fish  in,  a  pure  air  to  breathe  in,  good  water 
to  drink,  till  wine  or  beer  can  be  made  ;  which,  to- 
gether with  the  cows,  hogs  and  goats  brought  hither 
already,  may  suffice  for  food  ;  for  as  for  fowl  and 
venison,  they  are  dainties  here  as  w^ell  as  in  England. 
For  clothes  and  bedding,  they  must  bring  them  with 
them,  till  time  and  industry  produce  them  here.  In 
a  word,  we  yet  enjoy  little  to  be  envied,  but  endure 
much  to  be  pitied  in  the  sickness  and  mortality  of  our 
people.  And  I  do  the  more  willingly  use  this  open 
and  plain  dealing,  lest  other  men  should  fall  short  of 
their  expectations  when  they  come  hither,  as  we  to 
our  great  prejudice  did,  by  means  of  letters^  sent  us 
from  hence  into  England,  wherein  honest  men,  out 
of  a  desire  to  draw  over  others  to  them,  wrote  some- 
what hyperbolically  of  many  things  here.  If  any 
godly  men,  out  of  religious  ends,  will  come  over  to 
help  us  in  the  good  work  we  are  about,  I  think  they 
cannot  dispose  of  themselves  nor  of  their  estates 
more  to  God's  glory  and  the  furtherance  of  their  own 
reckoning.  But  they  must  not  be  of  the  poorer  sort 
yet,  for  divers  years  ;  for  we  have  found  by  experi- 
ence that  they  have  hindered,  not  furthered  the  work. 
And  for  profane  and  debauched  persons,  their  over- 

'  These  were  probably  the  letters  written  by  Higginson  and  Graves. 
See  note  ^  on  page  310. 


CAUSES    OF    THE    MORTALITY.  325 

sight  in  coming  hither  is  wondered  at,  where  they  ^^f- 

shall  find  nothing  to  content  them.     If  there  be  any  ■ • 

endued  with  grace,  and  furnished  with  means  to  feed  ^  ^• 
themselves  and  theirs  for  eighteen  months,  and  to  build 
and  plant,  let  them  come  over  into  our  Macedonia 
and  help  us,^  and  not  spend  themselves  and  their 
estates  in  a  less  profitable  employment.  For  others, 
I  conceive  they  are  not  yet  fitted  for  this  business. 

Touching  the  discouragement  which  the  sickness 
and  mortality  which  every  first  year  hath  seized  upon 
us  and  those  of  Plymouth,  as  appeareth  before,  may 
give  to  such  who  have  cast  any  thoughts  this  way, 
(of  which  mortality  it  may  be  said  of  us  almost  as  of 
the  Egyptians,  that  there  is  not  a  house  where  there  xiL°36. 
is  not  one  dead,  and  in  some  houses  many,)  the  natu-  • 
ral  causes  seem  to  be  in  the  want  of  warm  lodging 
and  good  diet,  to  which  Englishmen  are  habituated 
at  home,  and  in  the  sudden  increase  of  heat  which 
they  endure  that  are  landed  here  in  summer,  the  salt 
meats  at  sea  having  prepared  their  bodies  thereto  ; 
for  those  only  these  two  last  years  died  of  fevers  who 
landed  in  June  and  July ;  as  those  of  Plymouth,  who 
landed  in  winter,  died  of  the  scurvy  ;^  as  did  our 
poorer  sort,  whose  houses  and  bedding  kept  them 
not  sufficiently  warm,  nor  their  diet  sufficiently  in 
heart.  Other  causes  God  may  have,  as  our  faithful 
minister,   Mr.   Wilson,^  lately  handling  that  point, 

^  This  was  the  motto  of  the  Col-  ester,  a  canon  of  Windsor,  and  rec- 

ony  Seal.     See  note  '  on  page  155.  tor  of  Cliffe,  in  Kent ;  and  his  mo- 

^  See   Chronicles   of   Plymouth,  ther  was  the  niece  of  Dr.  Edmund 

p.  198.  Grindall,  archbishop  of  Canterbury, 

^  John  Wilson,  the  first  minister  after  whom  he  named  his  eldest  son. 

of  the  first  church  in  Charlestown  After  studying  four  years  at  Eton, 

and   Boston,  was  born  at  W^indsor  Mather  says  he  was  admitted  into 

in    1588      His  father,  Dr.  William  King's  College,  Cambridge,  in  1602, 

Wilson,  was  a  prebendary  of  Roch-  in  which  he  afterwards  obtained  a 


326 


JOHN    WILSON,  OF    BOSTON. 


CHAP,  showed  unto  us  ;  which  I  forbear  to  mention,  leav- 

XVII 

^  ing  this  matter  to  the  further  dispute  of  physicians 

^^^^*  and  divines. 


fellowship.     But  Mr.  Savage,  who 
inspected  the  rejjisters  of  the  Uni- 
versity in  1842,  found  that  he  took 
his  degrees  of  A.  B.  and  A.  M.  at 
Christ's  College  in  1605  and  1609. 
Becoming  a  Puritan   and   Noncon- 
formist, he  was  forced  by  the  bishop 
of  Lincoln  to  resign  his  fellowship 
and  leave  the  University.    Upon  tliis 
his  father  sent  him  to  London  to  stu- 
dy law  at  the  Lins  of  Court,  where 
he  remained  three  years  ;  but  find- 
ing him  strongly  bent  on  the  minis- 
try, he  permitted  him  to  return  to 
Cambridge,  and  finish  his  studies, 
and  take  his  Master's  degree.  After 
preaching  at  several  places,  he  was 
settled  in  the  ministry  at   Sudbury, 
in    Suffolk,  where   he   was   a  near 
neighbour  to  Winthrop,  at  Groton. 
After  preaching  here  for  awhile,  he 
was  first   suspended    and    then  si- 
lenced by  the  bishop  of  Norwich  ; 
but,  through  the  interposition  of  the 
Earl  of  Warwick,  he  again  obtained 
permission  to  exercise  his  ministry. 
Tired,  however,  of  being  thus  ha- 
rassed, he  embarked,  at  the  age  of 
42,  with  some  of  his  neighbours,  in 
"Winthrop's  fleet.    At  the  first  Court 
of  Assistants,  held  at  Charlestown, 
Aug.  23,  1630,  it  was  ordered  that 
a   house   should   be   built   for  Mr. 
Wilson,   and   that  he  should  have 
£20  a  year  till  his  wife  came  over. 
She  was  a  daughter  of  Lady  Mans- 
field, widow  of  Sir  John  Mansfield, 
and  a  near  relative  of  Sir  William 
Bird.     He  returned  from  England 
without  her.  May  26,  1632  ;  and  it 
was  not  till  his  second  visit  that  he 
could  prevail  upon  her  to  accompany 
him  to  New-England,  in  1635.    She 
probably  had  been  discouraged  by 
the  death  of  so  many  prominent  fe- 
males  the   first  year.     Gov.   Win- 
throp's wife,  who  had  been  neces- 
sarily prevented  from  accompanying 
her  husband,  writes  thus  to  her  son 
in  June,  1631,  "  Mr.  Wilson  is  now 


in  London.    He  cannot  yet  persuade 
his  wife  to  go,  for  all  he  hath  taken 
this  pains  to  come  and  fetch  her.    I 
marvel  what  mettle  she  is  made  of." 
Wilson   was   minister   of  the   first 
church  in  Boston  37  years,  3  years 
before   Mr.  Cotton,    19    years  with 
liim,     7   years   with     Mr.   Noilon, 
and  4  years  after  him.     Winthrop 
speaks  of  him  as   "a  very  sincere, 
holy  man."    He  died  Aug.  7,  1667, 
in   his   79th   year.     His   Life  was 
written    by     Cotton    Mather,    and 
Hutchinson    says    he    had   it   "in 
manuscript  by  another  hand . ' '     His 
will  is  preserved  ui  the  Probate  Re- 
cords of  Suffolk,  lib.  vi.  fol.  1,  and 
his  portrait  hangs  in  the  hall  of  the 
Massachusetts   Historical    Society. 
His  second  son,  John,  who  gradu- 
ated in  the  first  class  at   Harvard 
College,  in  1641,  was  ordained  col- 
league with  Richard  Mather  at  Dor- 
chester, in  1649,  and  after  two  years 
removed  to  Medfield,  where  he  was 
pastor  forty  years,   and  died  Aug. 
23,    1691,    aged   70.     He   married 
Sarah,  daughter   of  the  Rev.  Tho- 
mas  Hooker,   of  Hartford,  and  his 
son  John  was  baptized  in  his  grand- 
father Wilson's  church  at  Boston, 
July  8,  1649.     It  was  Dr.  Edmund 
Wilson,  a  physician,   a   brother  of 
the  minister  of  Boston,  who  gave 
jClOOO  to  the  Colony,   with  which 
they  purchased  artillery  and  ammu- 
nition.    An  inventory  of  these  arti- 
cles, sent  over  in  the  Griffin  in  1634, 
may  be  found  in   Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
xviii.  228.     See  also   Winthrop,  i. 
50,  77,  81,  169,  172,  382;  Morton's 
Memorial,  p.  326  ;  Mather,  i.  275- 
292 ;    Prince,    370  ;    Hutchinson's 
Mass.  i.  258  ;  Emerson's   Hist,  of 
the  First  Church  in  Boston,  pp.  1- 
106  ;    Mass.    Hist.    Coll.    xii.    59, 
xvii.  56,  xxiii.  378,  xxviii.  248, 316 ; 
Wood's    Fasti  Oxon.  (edit.  Bliss,) 
pnrt  i.   322,  360  ;  Ashmole's  Anti- 
quities of  Berkshire,  iii.  157. 


Dec. 

28. 


A    SHALLOP    DRIVEN    TO    SEA.  327 

Wherefore  to  return,  upon  the  3d  of  January  died  chap. 
the  daughter  of  Mr.  Sharpe,^  a  godly  virgin,  making  -— .^^ 
a  comfortable  end,  after  a  long  sickness.    The  Plant-  i63i. 
ation  here  received  not  the  like  loss  of  any  woman     3^* 
since  we  came  hither,  and  therefore  she  well  de- 
serves to  be  remembered  in  this  place. 

And  to  add  to  our  sorrows,  upon  the  5th  day  came  5. 
letters  to  us  from  Plymouth,  advertising  us  of  this 
sad  accident  following.^  About  a  fortnight  before,  leso. 
there  went  from  us  in  a  shallop  to  Plymouth  six  men 
and  a  girl,  who,  in  an  hour  or  two  before  night,  on 
the  same  day  they  went  forth,  came  near  to  the 
mouth  of  Plymouth  bay  ;  but  the  wind  then  coming 
strongly  from  the  shore,  kept  them  from  entering, 
and  drove  them  to  sea-wards  ;  and  they  having  no 
better  means  to  help  themselves,  let  down  their  kil- 
lock,^  that  so  they  might  drive  the  more  slowly,  and 
be  nearer  land  when  the  storm  should  cease.  But 
the  stone  slipping  out  of  the  killock,  and  there- 
by they  driving  faster  than  they  thought  all  the 
night,  in  the  morning,  when  they  looked  out,  they 
found  themselves  out  of  sight  of  land  ;  which  so  as- 
tonished them,  (the  frost  being  extreme  and  their 
hands  so  benumbed  with  cold  that  they  could  not 
handle  their  oars,  neither  had  any  compass  to 
steer  by,)  that  they  gave  themselves  for  lost,  and 
lay  down  to  die  quietly.  Only  one  man,  who  had 
more  natural  heat  and  courage  remaining  than  the 
rest,  continued  so  long  looking  for  land,  that,  the 
morning  waxing   clearer,   he  discovered  land,  and 

*  Thomas  Sharpe.  ^  A   wooden  frame   enclosing    a 

^    See    Winthrop,    i.    39,      and    stone,  used  for  an  anchor. 

Wood's   New-England's  Prospect, 

part  i.  ch.  2. 


328  THE  MEN  REACH  PLYMOUTH. 

CHAP,  with  difficulty  hoisted  the  sail ;    and  so  the  wind  a 

XVII.  '' 

little  turning,  two  days  after   they  were  driven  from 

1630.  Plymouth  bay,  they  arrived  at  a  shore  unknown  unto 
so'J"  them/  The  stronger  helped  the  weaker  out  of  the 
boat,  and  taking  their  sail  on  shore,  made  a  shelter 
thereof,  and  made  a  fire.  But  the  frost  had  so 
pierced  their  bodies,  that  one  of  them  died  about 
16  31 ,  three  days  after  their  landing,  and  most  of  the  others 
Jan.  grew  worse,  both  in  body  and  courage,  no  hope  of 
relief  being  within  their  view.  Well,  yet  the  Lord 
pitying  them,  and  two  of  them,  who  only  could  use 
their  legs,  going  abroad  rather  to  seek  than  to  hope 
to  find  help,  they  met  first  with  two  Indian  women, 
who  sent  unto  them  an  Indian  man,  who  informed 
them  that  Plymouth  was  within  fifty  miles,  and  offer- 
ed together  to  procure  relief  for  them  ;  which  they 
gladly  accepting,  he  performed,  and  brought  them 
three  men  from  Plymouth,  (the  Governor  and  Coun- 
cil of  Plymouth  liberally  rewarding  the  Indian,  and 
took  care  for  the  safety  of  our  people,)  who  brought 
them  all  alive  in  their  boat  thither,  save  one  man, 
who,  with  a  guide,  chose  rather  to  go  over  land  ; 
but  quickly  fell  lame  by  the  way,  and  getting  har- 
bour at  a  trucking-house  the  Plymotheans  had  in 
those  parts,"  there  he  yet  abides.  At  the  others' 
landing  at  Plymouth,  one  of  them  died  as  he  was 
taken  out  of  the  boat.  Another,  and  he  the  worst 
in  the  company,  rotted  from  the  feet  upwards,  where 
the  frost  had  gotten  most  hold,  and  so  died  within  a 
few  days.     The  other  three,^  after  God  had  blessed 


'  On    Cape   Cod,    according    to     wicli.    See  Chronicles  of  Plymouth, 
Winthrop  and  Wood.  P^^p  306. 

*  At  Scusset  harbour,  in  Sand-        ^  The  name  of  one  of  them  was 


DEATH    OF    RICHARD    GARRETT.  329 

the  chirursreon's  skill  used  towards  them,  returned  chap. 

^  XVII. 

safe  to  us.  I  set  down  this  the  more  largely,  partly  ^~ 
because  the  first  man  that  died  was  a  godly  man  of  ^^^i- 
our  congregation,  one  Richard  Garrad,^  who,  at  the 
time  of  his  death,  more  feared  he  should  dishonor 
God  than  cared  for  his  own  life  ;  as  also  because 
divers  boats  have  been  in  manifest  peril  this  year, 
yet  the  Lord  preserved  them  all,  this  one  ex- 
cepted. 

Amongst  those  who  died  about  the  end  of  this 
January,  there  was  a  girl  of  eleven  years  old,  the 
daughter  of  one  John  Ruggles,^  of  w^hose  family  and 
kindred  died  so  many,^  that  for  some  reason  it  was 
matter  of  observation  amongst  us  ;  who,  in  the  time 
of  her  sickness,  expressed  to  the  minister,  and  to 
those  about  her,  so  much  faith  and  assurance  of  sal- 
vation, as  is  rarely  found  in  any  of  that  age  ;  which 
I  thought  not  unworthy  here  to  commit  to  memory. 
And  if  any  tax  me  for  wasting  paper  with  recording 
these  small  matters,  such  may  consider  that  little 
mothers  bring  forth  little  children,  small  common- 
wealths matters  of  small  moment,  the  reading  where- 
of yet  is  not  to  be  despised  by  the  judicious,  because 
small  things  in  the  beginning  of  natural  or  politic 
bodies  are  as  remarkable  as  greater  in  bodies  full 
grown. 


Henry  Harwood,  "  a  godly  man  of  '  Garrad,  or  Garrett,  was  a  shoe- 

the  congregation  of  Boston."     At  a  maker,  of  Boston,  and  was  the  55th 

Court  of  Assistants,  held  the  16th  member    admitted   to    the    church 

of  August  following,  it  was  ordered  there. 

"  that  the  executors  of  Richard  Gar-  ^  John  Ruggles  was  admitted   a 

rett  shall  pay  unto  Henry  Harwood  freeman  July  3,  1632. 

the  sura  of  twenty  nobles,"  proba-  '  Winthrop  mentions  Jeffrey  Rug- 

bly  for  the  'danger  and  suffering  to  gles,  of  Sudbury,  among  those  who 

which  he  had  involuntarily  subjected  died.     See  note  ^  on  page  319. 

him.  See  Savage's  Wintiirop,  i.  40, 


330  AURIVAL    OF    THE    LION. 

Upon  the  5th  of  February  arrived  here  Mr.  Peirce, 
with  the  ship  Lion,  of  Bristow,  with  supplies  of  vict- 
*^^^'  uals   from  Eno:land  :^  who  had  set   forth  from  Bris- 

Feb. 

5.*  tow  the  1st  of  December  before.  He  had  a  stormy 
passage  hither,  and  lost  one  of  his  sailors  ^  not  far 
from  our  shore,  who  in  a  tempest  having  helped  to 
take  in  the  spritsail,  lost  his  hold  as  he  was  coming 
down,  and  fell  into  the  sea ;  where,  after  long  swim- 
ming, he  was  drowned,  to  the  great  dolor  of  those  in 
the  ship,  who  beheld  so  lamentable  a  spectacle  with- 
out being  able  to  minister  help  to  him,  the  sea  was 
so  high  and  the  ship  drove  so  fast  before  the  wind, 
though  her  sails  were  taken  down.  By  this  ship  w^e 
understood  of  the  fight  of  three  of  our  ships  and  two 
English  men-of-war  coming  out  of  the  Straits,  with 
fourteen  Dunkirkers,^  upon  the  coast  of  England,  as 
they  returned  from  us  in  the  end  of  the  last  summer ; 
who,  through  God's  goodness,  with  the  loss  of  some 
thirteen  or  fourteen  men  out  of  our  three  ships,  and  I 
know  not  how  many  out  of  the  two  men-of-war,  got 
at  length  clear  of  them  ;  the  Charles,  one  of  our 
three,^  a  stout  ship  of  three  hundred  tons,  being  so 
torn,  that  she  had  not  much  of  her  left  whole  above 
water.  By  this  ship  we  also  understood  the  death 
of  many  of  those  who  went  from  us  the  last  year  to 


*  She  arrived  at  Nantasket  on  son  of  Henry  Way,  one  of  the  first 
the  5th,  and  anchored  before  Boston  settlers  of  Dorchester,  who  died  in 
on  the  9th.  The  celebrated  Roger  1667,  aged  84.  He  had  another  son 
Wilhams  and  his  wife  came  in  her.  killed  by  the  Eastern  Indians  in 
Her  cargo  consisted  of  34  hhds.  June,  1632.  See  Savage's  Win- 
wheat  meal,  15  hhds.  pease,  4  hhds.  throp,  i.  43,  79  ;  Blake's  Annals  of 
oatmeal,  4  hhds.  beef  and  pork,  15  Dorchester,  p.  24;  Wood's  New- 
cwt.  of  cheese,  butter,  suet,  seed  England's  Prospect,  part  ii.  eh.  2. 
barley  and  rye,  &c.  They  arrived  ^  See  note  ^  on  page  218. 
in  good  order.  See  Savage's  Win-  *  The  other  two  Avere  the  Success 
throp,  i.  41,  43,  47.  and  the  Whale.     See  Winthrop,  i. 

^  His  name  was  Way,  probably  a  4G. 


Feb. 


ILL    REPORTS    OF    THE    COLONY    AT    HOME.  331 

Old  England,   as  likewise  of  the  mortality  there  ;  chap. 

whereby  we  see   there  are  graves  in  other  places  as  

well  as  with  us.  lesi. 

Also,  to  increase  the  heap  of  our  sorrows,  we  re- 
ceived advertisement  by  letters  from  our  friends  in 
England,  and  by  the  reports  of  those  who  came 
hither  in  this  ship  to  abide  with  us,  (who  w^ere  about 
tw^enty-six,)  that  they  who  went  discontentedly  from 
us  the  last  year,  out  of  their  evil  affections  towards 
us,  have  raised  many  false  and  scandalous  reports 
against  us,  affirming  us  to  be  Brownists^  in  religion, 
and  ill  affected  to  our  State  at  home,  and  that  these 
vile  reports  have  won  credit  with  some  who  formerly 
wished  us  well.  But  we  do  desire,  and  cannot  but 
hope,  that  wise  and  impartial  men  will  at  length  con- 
sider that  such  malecontents  have  ever  pursued  this 
manner  of  casting  dirt,  to  make  others  seem  as  foul 
as  themselves,  and  that  our  godly  friends,  to  whom 
we  have  been  known,  will  not  easily  believe  that  we 
are  so  soon  turned  from  the  profession  we  so  long 
have  made  in  our  native  country.  And  for  our 
further  clearing,  I  truly  affirm,  that  I  know  no  one 
person,  who  came  over  with  us  the  last  year,  to  be 
altered  in  judgment  and  affection,  either  in  ecclesi- 
astical or  civil  respects,  since  our  coming  hither. 
But  we  do  continue  to  pray  daily  for  our  sovereign 
lord  the  King,  the  Queen,  the  Prince,  the  royal 
blood,  the  Council  and  whole  State,  as  duty  binds  us 
to  do,  and  reason  persuades  others  to  believe.  For 
how  ungodly  and  unthankful  should  we  be,  if  we 
should  not  thus  do,  who  came  hither  by  virtue  of  his 
Majesty's  letters  patent,  and  under  his  gracious  pro- 

'  See  Chronicles  of  Plymouth,  pp.  416-444. 


332  THE    FIRST    TIIANKSGIVING-DAY. 

tection  ;  under  which  shelter  we  hope  to  live  safely, 
and  from  whose  kingdom  and  subjects  we  now  have 
1G31.  received  and  hereafter  expect  relief.  Let  our  friends 
therefore  give  no  credit  to  such  malicious  aspersions, 
but  be  more  ready  to  answer  for  us  than  we  hear 
they  have  been.  We  are  not  like  those  which  have 
dispensations  to  lie  ;  but  as  we  were  free  enough  in 
Old  England  to  turn  our  insides  outwards,  sometimes 
to  our  disadvantage,  very  unlike  is  it  that  now,  he- 
mgprocul  afulmine,  we  should  be  so  unlike  ourselves. 
Let  therefore  this  be  sufficient  for  us  to  say,  and 
others  to  hear  in  this  matter. 

Amongst  others  who  died  about  this  time  was  Mr. 

Robert  Welden,^   whom,  in  the  time  of  his  sickness, 

we  had  chosen  to  be  captain  of  a  hundred  foot  ;  but 

before  he  took  possession  of  his  place,  he  died,  the 

Feb.    16th  of  this  February,  and  was  buried  as  a  soldier, 

'     with  three  volleys  of  shot. 
22.         Upon  the  22d  of  February  we  held  a  general  day 
of  Thanksgiving  throughout   the   whole  Colony  for 
the  safe  arrival  of  the  ship  which  came  last  with  our 
provisions. 

About  this  time  we  apprehended  one  Robert 
Wright,  who  had  been  sometimes  a  linen  draper  in 
Newgate  market,  and  after  that  a  brewer  on  the 
Bank  side  and  on  Thames  street.  This  man  we 
lately  understood  had  made  an  escape  in  London 
from  those  who  came  to  his  house  to  apprehend  him 
for  clipping  the  King's  coin  [one  or  two  words  wanting] 
had  stolen  after  us.     Upon  his  examination  he  con- 

*  Winthrop,  i.  45,  calls  him  "a  sumption  on  the  18th.     Perhaps  his 

hopeful    younfT    gentleman,  and   an  military  funeral  took  place  on  the 

experienced  soldier,"  and  says  that  18th. 
he  died  at  Charlestown  of  a  con- 


SIR    CHRISTOPHER    GARDINER.  333 

fessed  the  fact,  and  his  escape,  but  affirmed  he  had  chap- 

the  King's  pardon  for  it  under  the  broad  seal ;  which 

he  yet  not  hems:  able  to  prove,  and  one  to  whom  he  ^^^^• 

\  ,.        ,.^.'  1-  n-,  .     March. 

was  known  chargmg  him  with  untruth  in  some  oi  nis 
answers,  we  therefore  committed  him  to  prison,  to 
be  sent  by  the  next  ship  into  England.^ 

Likewise  we  were  lately  informed  that  one  Mr.  April. 
Gardiner,  who  arrived  here  a  month  before  us,  and 
who  had  passed  here  for  a  knight,  by  the  name  of 
Sir  Christopher  Gardiner,  all  this  while  was  no 
knight,  but  instead  thereof  had  two  wives  now  living 
in  a  house  at  London,  one  of  which  came  about  Sep- 
tember last  from  Paris  in  France  (where  her  husband 
had  left  her  years  before)  to  London,  where  she  had 
heard  her  husband  had  married  a  second  wife,  and 
whom,  by  inquiring,  she  found  out.  And  they  both 
condoling  each  other's  estate,  wrote  both  their  let- 
ters to  the  Governor,  (by  Mr.  Peirce,  who  had  con- 
ference with  both  the  women  in  the  presence  of  Mr. 
Allerton,^  of  Plymouth,)  his  first  wife  desiring  his 
return  and  conversion,  his  second  his  destruction  for 
his  foul  abuse,  and  for  robbing  her  of  her  estate,  of 
a  part  whereof  she  sent  an  inventory  hither,  com- 
prising therein  many  rich  jewels,  much  plate,  and 
costly  linen.  This  man  had  in  his  family  (and  yet 
hath)  a  gentlewoman,  whom  he  called  his  kinswoman, 
and  whom  one  of  his  wives  in  her  letter  names  Mary 


*  At  a  Court  of  Assistants  held  at  however,  he  was  discharged  the 
Boston,  March  1,  it  was  "ordered  same  year  for  acting  contrary  to 
that  Mr.  Wright  shall  be  sent  prisoner  their  instructions.  See  an  account 
into  England  by  the  ship  Lion,  now  of  him  in  the  Chronicles  of  Ply- 
returning  thither."  mouth,  note   '   on   page   195.     See 

^  Isaac  Allerton  was  at  this  time  also  Prince's   Annals,  pp.  358  and 

in  London,  as  an  agent  of  the  Ply-  3G1,  and  Winthrop,  i.  57. 
mouth  Colony,  from  which  office, 


334  SIR    CHRISTOPHER    GARDINER. 

CHAF.  Grove,  afRrmina:  her  to  be  a  known  harlot,  whose 

XVJI  '  ~  ' 

^  sending  back  into  Old  England  she  also  desired,  to- 

1G31.  gether  with  her  husband.  Shortly  after  this  intelli- 
^i}  gence,  we  sent  to  the  house  of  the  said  Gardiner, 
(which  was  seven  miles  from  us,)  to  apprehend  him 
and  his  woman,  with  a  purpose  to  send  them  both  to 
London  to  his  wives  there.  But  the  man,  who  bav- 
ins heard  some  rumor  from  some  who  came  in  the 
ship,  that  letters  were  come  to  the  Governor  requir- 
ing justice  against  him,  was  readily  prepared  for 
flight,  so  soon  as  he  should  see  any  crossing  the 
river,  or  likely  to  apprehend  him  ;  which  he  accord- 
ingly performed.  For  he  dwelling  alone,  easily 
discerned  such  who  were  sent  to  take  him,  half  a 
mile  before  they  approached  his  house  ;  and,  with 
his  piece  on  his  neck,  went  his  way,  as  most  men 
think,  northwards,  hoping  to  find  some  English  there 
like  to  himself.  But  likely  enough  it  is,  which  way 
soever  he  went,  he  will  lose  himself  in  the  woods, 
and  be  stopped  with  some  rivers  in  his  passing,  not- 
withstanding his  compass  in  his  pocket,  and  so  with 
hunger  and  cold  will  perish  before  he  find  the  place 
he  seeks. ^     His  woman  was  brought  unto  us,  and 


1  Winthrop  says  that  "  he  travel-  England,   but  seem  actuated  by  a 

led  up  and  down  among  the  Indians  spirit  of  adventure  and  an  unaccount- 

about   a   month  ;  but,  by  means  of  able  love   of  frolic.     Morton  says, 

the  Governor  of  Plymouth,  he  was  that    Gardiner    "  came   into    those 

taken  by  the  Indians  about  Namas-  parts,  intending  discovery."     It  is 

ket,  (Middleborough,)  and  brought  not   unlikely,    however,   that   they 

to   Plymouth,   and  from  thence  he  were  both  in  the  employment  of  Sir 

was   brought,   by   Capt.    Underhill  Ferdinando  Gorges,  who  claimed  a 

and  his  lieutenant,  Dudley,  May  4,  great  part  of  the  Bay  of  Massachu- 

lo  Boston."     There  seems  to  be  a  setts,  and  had  been  sent  over  as  his 

mystery  hanging  over  Gardiner,  as  agents   or   spies.     We   know   that 

well    as   Morton  of  Merry  Mount,  Gorges     corresponded    with     them 

which   it   is   difficult   to    clear    up.  both,  and  by  his  intercepted  letters 

They  appear  to  have  had  no  definite  it  appears  that  he  had  some  secret 

object  in  view  in  coming  to  New-  design    to    recover    his    pretended 


1631. 


FLOCKS  OF  PIGEONS.  335 

confessed  her  name,  and  that  her   mother   dwells  chap. 

.  XVII. 

eight  miles  from  Boirdly,  in  Salopshire,  and  that 
Gardiner's  father  dwells  in  or  near  Gloucester,  and 
was  (as  she  said)  brother  to  Stephen  Gardiner,  Bish- 
op of  Winchester,^  and  did  disinherit  his  son  for  his 
twenty-six  years'  absence  in  his  travels  in  France, 
Italy,  Germany,  and  Turkey  ;  that  he  had  (as  he  told 
her)  married  a  wife  in  his  travels,  from  whom  he  was 
divorced,  and  the  woman  long  since  dead ;  that  both 
herself  and  Gardiner  w^ere  Catholics  till  of  late,  but 
were  now  Protestants  ;  that  she  takes  him  to  be  a 
knight,  but  never  heard  when  he  was  knighted. 
The  woman  was  impenitent  and  close,  confessing  no 
more  than  was  wrested  from  her  by  her  own  contra- 
dictions. So  we  have  taken  order  to  send  her  to  the 
two  wives  in  Old  England,  to  search  her  further. 

Upon  the  8th  of  March,  from  after  it  was  fair  day-  March 
light  until  about  eight  of  the  clock  in  the  forenoon,  ^' 
there  flew  over  all  the  towns  in  our  plantations  so 
many  flocks  of  doves,  each  flock  containing  many 
thousands,  and  some  so  many  that  they  obscured  the 
light,  that  it  passeth  credit,  if  but  the  truth  should 
be  written  ;^  and  the  thing  was  the  more  strange, 

right,   and   that   he  reposed   much         '  This  story,   says  Farmer,  was 

trust  in  Gardiner.     On  his  return  to  probably  invented  by  the  pretended 

England  Gardiner  was  very  active  knight,  to  raise  him  in  the   estiraa- 

in  cooperating  with  Gorges  and  Mor-  tion   of  his   paramour.      Gardiner, 

ton  in  their  endeavours  to  injure  the  the  bishop  of  Winchester,  was  born 

colonists,  and  deprive  them  of  their  147  years  before  this   examination, 

patent.     These  attempts,  however,  and  had  been  dead  75  years.     See 

were  defeated  by  the  friends  of  the  New  Hampshire  Hist.  Coll.  iv.  245, 

Colony  in  England,   especially  Sir  and     Harington's  Nugae   Antiquae, 

Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  Humphrey,  ii.  64. 

Mr.  Cradock,  and  Emanuel  Down-        ^  Gov.    Winthrop,      writing     in 

ing.     See  W^inthrop,  i.  54,57,  100,  1643,  says,   "  The  pigeons  came  in 

10-2,   106;  Morton's  Mem.  p.  163;  flocks,  above  10,000  in  one  flock." 

Prince,  p.  352  ;  Morton's  New-Eng-  See  note  -  on  page  253,  and  Win- 

lish  Canaan,  book  iii.  ch.  30  ;  Mass.  throp,  ii.  94,  331. 
Hist,  Coll.  xxviii.  320,  323. 


336 


SIR    RICHARD    SALTONSTALL. 


CHAP,  because  I  scarce  remember  to  have  seen  ten  doves 
XVII.     .          ^  .  ,  „i  „ 
since  I  came  into  the  country,      ihey  were   all  tur- 


1631 


March 


ties,  as  appeared  by  divers  of  them  we  killed  flying, 
somewhat  bigger  than  those  of  Europe,  and  they  flew 
from  the  north-east  to  the  south-west ;  but  what  it 
portends,  I  know  not. 

The  ship  now  waits  but  for  wind  ;^  which  when  it 
blows,  there  are  ready  to  go  aboard  therein  for  Eng- 
land, Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,^  Mr.  Sharpe,  Mr.  Cod- 


^  The  ship,  the  Lion,  was  at  Sa- 
lem, whence  she  sailed  April  1. 
See  Winthrop,  i.  49,  52. 

2  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall, 
one  of  the  principal  founders  of  the 
Colony,  was  the  son  of  Samuel  Sal- 
tonstall, and  grandson  of  Gilhert 
Saltonstall,  of  Halifax,  in  the  West 
Riding  of  Yorkshire.  His  uncle, 
Sir  Richard,  was  Lord  Mayor  of 
London  in  1597.  He  married  Grace, 
daughter  of  Robert  Kaye,  Esq., 
who  probably  died  before  her  hus- 
band came  over  to  this  country,  as 
we  find  no  mention  of  her,  although 
her  daughters  came  with  their  fa- 
ther. He  was  the  founder  of  Wa- 
tertown,  and  the  first  member  of  the 
church  there.  Edward  Johnson 
says,  "  This  town  began  by  occa- 
sion of  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  who 
at  his  arrival,  having  some  store  of 
cattle  and  servants,  they  wintered  in 
those  parts."  He  remained  in  the 
country  less  than  a  year,  taking 
home  with  him  liis  two  daughters 
and  one  of  his  younger  sons,  and 
leaving  behind  his  two  oldest  sons, 
Richard,  the  elder,  being  at  this 
time  20  years  of  age.  He  still  con- 
tinued, however,  to  take  a  deep  in- 
terest in  the  welfare  of  the  Colony, 
and  befriended  it  essentially  at  home 
against  the  machinations  of  its  ene- 
mies. He  was  also  largely  inte- 
rested in  the  joint  stock  of  the  Com- 
pany, and  in  .Tune,  1635,  sent  over 
a  bark  of  40  tons,  with  twenty  ser- 
vants, to  plant  at  Connecticut,  of 
whioli  Colony  he  was  one  of  the  pa- 
tentees.    By  his  will  it  appears  he 


was  living  in  1658.  There  is  a  fine 
portrait  of  him  in  the  possession  of 
one  of  his  descendants  in  New  York. 
His  eldest  son,  Richard,  was  born  at 
Woodsome,  in  Yorkshire,  in  1610. 
He  was  admitted  to  Emanuel  Col- 
lege, Cambridge,  in  1627,  but  left 
without  taking  a  degree,  in  order  to 
accompany  his  father  to  New-Eng- 
land. He  went  to  England  in  Nov. 
1631,  and  married  Mariel,  daughter 
of  Brampton  Gurdon,  Esq.,  of  As- 
sington,  in  Suffolk,  whence  his 
grandson,  the  Governor  of  Connect- 
icut, got  the  name  of  Gurdon  Sal- 
tonstall. Richard  settled  at  Ips- 
wich, and  was  chosen  an  Assistant 
in  1037.  He  went  to  England  again 
in  1672,  and  returned  in  1680.  He 
visited  England  a  third  time  in 
1683,  having  three  daughters  mar- 
ried there,  and  died  at  Holme, 
April  29,  1694,  aged  84.  A  long 
line  of  his  descendants  has  illustra- 
ted the  name  of  Saltonstall  down  to 
the  present  day,  among  whom  not 
the  least  eminent  and  worthy  was 
the  late  lamented  Leverett  Salton- 
stall, of  Salem,  Mayor  of  that  city, 
President  of  the  Senate  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  a  Representative  in 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
who  died  May  8,  1845,  in  his  62d 
year.  See  Winthrop,  i.  49,  161  ; 
Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  15,  332 ; 
Mass.  Plist.  Coll.  xii.  94,  xiv.  154- 
168,  xviii.  42,  xxviii.  249,  314, 
xxix.  117-125;  Francis's  Hist,  of 
Watertown,  pp.  14-17  ;  Thoresby's 
Hist,  of  Leeds,  (ed.  Whitaker,)  ii. 
236. 


10  31. 
]\Iarch. 


WILLIAM    CODDINGTON,  OF    BOSTON.  337 

dington/  and  many  others  ;  the  most  whereof  pm'-  ^.^J*- 
pose  to  retmui  to  us  again,  if  God  will.  In  the  mean 
time,  we  are  left  a  people  poor  and  contemptible, 
yet  such  as  trust  in  God,  and  are  contented  with 
our  condition,  being  well  assured  that  he  will  not 
fail  us  nor  forsake  us. 

I  had  almost  forgotten  to  add  this,  that  the  wheat 
we  received  by  this  last  ship  stands  us  in  thirteen 
or  fourteen  shillings  a  strike,  and  the  pease  about 
eleven  shillings  a  strike,^  besides  the  adventure, 
which  is  worth  three  or  four  shillings  a  strike  ;  which 
is  a  higher  price  than  I  ever  tasted  bread  of  before. 

Thus,  Madam,  I  have,  as  I  can,  told  your  Honor 
all  our  matters,  knowing  your  wisdom  can  make  good 
use  thereof.  If  I  live  not  to  perform  the  like  office 
of  my  duty  hereafter,  likely  it  is  some  other  w^ill  do 
it  better. 

Before  the  departure  of  the  ship,  (which  yet  was 
wind-bound,)  there   came   unto   us  sagamore  John,^ 

^  William  Coddington,  the  father  where  he  built  the  first  brick  house, 
of  Rhode  Island,  -was  of  Boston,  in  In  1637,  in  the  Wheelwright  and 
Lincolnshire,  "  a  godly  man  and  of  Hutchinsonian  controversy,  he  sided 
good  estate,"  according  to  Win-  with  A'ane  and  Cotton  against  Win- 
throp.  He  was  chosen  an  Assistant  throp  and  Dudley,  and  on  this  ac- 
at  Southampton  March  18,  1629,  count  the  people  left  him  out  of  the 
just  before  the  sailing  of  the  fleet,  magistracy.  In  April  of  the  next 
In  a  letter  to  John  Cotton,  written  year  he  left  his  advantageous  situa- 
after  his  return  to  England,  and  tion  at  Boston,  and  his  large  proper- 
dated  June  4,  1632,  he  says,  "I  am,  ty  and  improvements  at  Braintree, 
I  thank  God,  in  bodily  health  ;  yet  and  removed  to  Rhode  Island,  of 
not  enjoying  that  freedom  of  spirit,  which  he  was  several  times  chosen 
being  withheld  from  that  place  Governor,  dpng  in  that  office,  Nov. 
which  my  soul  desireth,  and  my  1,  1678,  in  his  78th  year.  Callen- 
heart  earnestly  worketh  after ;  nei-  der  dedicated  his  Historical  Dis- 
ther,  I  think,  shall  I  see  it  till  course  on  Rhode  Island,  in  1739,  to 
towards  the  next  spring."  He  re-  his  grandson,  the  Hon.  William 
turned  to  New-England  in  May,  Coddington.  See  Winthrop,  i.  50, 
1633,  bringing  his  second  wife,  102,  132,  220,  224,  265,  382 ; 
Mary,  with  him.  The  next  year  Hutchinson,  i.  24  ;  Callender,  49- 
he  was  chosen  treasurer  of  the  Col-  53,  84,  96  (ed.  1838.) 
ony.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  ^  See  Winthrop,  i.  46. 
and  principal  merchants  of  Boston,  ^  See  note  *  on  page  306. 
22 


338  TWO    HOUSES    BURNT. 

CHAP,  and  one  of  his  subjects,  requiring  satisfaction  for  the 

• burning  of  two  wigwams   by  some  of  the  English  ; 

1631.  which  wigwams  were  not  inhabited,  but  stood  in  a 
place  convenient  for  their  shelter,  when  upon  occa- 
sion they  should  travel  that  way.  By  examination 
we  found  that  some  English  fowlers,  having  retired 
into  that  which  belonged  to  the  subject,  and  leaving 
a  fire  therein  carelessly,  which  they  had  kindled  to 
warm  them,  were  the  cause  of  burning  thereof.  For 
that  which  was  the  sagamore's,  we  could  find  no 
certain  proof  how  it  was  fired  ;  yet,  lest  he  should 
think  us  not  sedulous  enough  to  find  it  out,  and  so 
8.  should  depart  discontentedly  from  us,  we  gave  both 
him  and  his  subject  satisfaction  for  them  both.^ 
The  like  accident  of  fire  also  befell  Mr.  Sharpe^ 
17.  and  Mr.  Colborne^  upon  the  17th  of  this  March  ; 
both  whose  houses  (which  were  as  good  and  as  well 
furnished  as  the  most  in  the  Plantation,)  were  in  two 
hours'  space  burned  to  the  ground,  together  with 
much  of  their  household  stuff,  apparel,  and  other 
things  ;  as  also  some  goods  of  others  who  sojourned 
with  them  in  their  houses  ;  God  so  pleasing  to  ex- 
ercise us  with   corrections  of  this  kind,  as  he  hath 

'  "  At  a  Court  at  Watertown,  mentioned  on  page  157.  The  death 
March  8,  it  was  ordered  that  Sir  of  his  daughter  and  the  loss  of  his 
Richard  Saltonstall  (as  the  fire  had  house  probably  induced  him  to  re- 
been  occasioned  by  his  servant,  turn  to  England.  He  never  came 
James  Woodward,)  satisfy  the  In-  back.  See  pp.  106,  127,  and  327. 
dians  for  the  wrong  done  to  them  ;  '  William  Colburn  was  admitted 
which  accordingly  he  did  by  giving  a  freeman  May  18,  1631.  He  was 
them  seven  yards  of  cloth."  See  a  gentleman  of  great  influence  in 
Col.  Rec,  and  Prince,  p.  345.  Boston,  and  was  representative  of 

^  Thomas  Sharpe  was  chosen  an  the  town  in  1635  and  the  two  suc- 
Assistant  Oct.  29,  at  the  same  time  ceeding  years.  He  was  long  a  rul- 
Winthrop  was  chosen  Governor,  ing-elder  of  the  first  church,  after 
His  name  stands  the  sixth  on  the  ceasing  to  be  deacon,  and  died  Au- 
list  of  the  Boston  church  members,  gust  1,1662.  See  Savage's  Win- 
He  may  have  been  a  brother  of  throp,  i.  37,  ii.  361  ;  Prince,  pp. 
Samuel  Sharpe,  the  master-gunner,  321,  322. 


MRS.  SKELTON,  OF  SALEM,  DIES.  339 

done  with  others.     For  the  prevention  whereof  in  chap. 

.  XYII. 

our  new  town/  intended  this  summer  to  be  builded,  -^^ 
we  have  ordered  that  no  man  there  shall  build  his  i63i. 
chimney  with  w^ood,  nor  cover  his  house  with  thatch; 
w^hich  was  readily  assented  unto,  for  that  divers 
other  houses  have  been  burned  since  our  arrival, 
(the  fire  always  beginning  in  the  wooden  chimneys,) 
and  some  English  wigwams,  which  have  taken  fire 
in  the  roofs  covered  with  thatch  or  boughs. 

And  that  this  ship  might  return  into  Old  England 
with  heavy  news,  upon  the  18th  day  of  March  came  is. 
one  from  Salem,  and  told  us  that  upon  the  15th 
thereof  there  died  Mrs.  Skelton,^  the  wife  of  the 
other  minister  there  ;  who,  about  eighteen  or  twenty 
days  before,  handling  cold  things  in  a  sharp  morning, 
put  herself  into  a  most  violent  fit  of  the  wind  colic  and 
vomiting  ;  which  continuing,  she  at  length  fell  into 
a  fever,  and  so  died,  as  before.  She  was  a  godly 
and  a  helpful  woman,  and  indeed  the  main  pillar 
of  her  family,  having  left  behind  her  a  husband  and 
four  children,  weak  and  helpless,  who  can  scarce  tell 
how  to  live  without  her.  She  lived  desired,  and  died 
lamented,  and  well  deserves  to  be  honorably  re- 
membered. 

Upon  the  25th  of  this  March,  one  of  Watertown    25. 
having  lost  a  calf,  and  about  ten  of  the  clock  at  night 

'  Called  Cambridge  in  1638.    See  winter.       Winthrop,    however,    to 

Winthrop,  i.  265.    According  to  the  fulfil  a  promise  which  he  had  made 

agreement,  mentioned  on  page  320,  to  the  people  of  Boston,  took  down 

Dudley,  Bradstreet,  and  the  princi-  his  frame  and  removed  it  to  the  pe- 

pal  persons  in  the  Colony,  proceed-  ninsula.     This  was  a  great  disap- 

ed  the  next  spring  to   build  their  pointment  to  the  rest  of  the  compa- 

houses  at  Newtown.     Winthrop  set  ny,  and  caused  a  temporary  coolness 

up  the  frame  of  his  house  on  the  between  the  Governor  and   Deputy, 

spot  where  he  first  pitched  his  tent;  See  Hubbard,  p.  136  ;  Winthrop,  i. 

and  Dudley  finished  his  house  and  82  ;  Prince,  p.  363. 

removed     his   family   there    before  ^  See  note  ''  on  page  142. 


340 


A    FALSE    ALARM    AT    ROXBURY. 


XVII. 


CHAP,  hearing  the  howling  of  some  wolves  not  far  off, 
raised  many  of  his  neighbours  out  of  their  beds,  that, 
by  discharging  their  muskets  near  about  the  place 
where  he  heard  the  wolves,  he  might  so  put  the 
wolves  to  flight,  and  save  his  calf.  The  wind  serv- 
ing fit  to  carry  the  report  of  the  muskets  to  Rocks- 
bury,  three  miles  off,  at  such  a  time,  the  inhabitants 
there  took  an  alarm,  beat  up  their-  drum,  armed 
themselves,  and  sent  in  post  to  us  to  Boston,  to  raise 
us  also.  So  in  the  morning,  the  calf  being  found 
safe,  the  wolves  affrighted,  and  our  danger  past,  we 
w^ent  merrily  to  breakfast.^ 

I  thought  to  have  ended  before  ;  but  the  stay  of 
the  ship,  and  my  desire  to  inform  your  Honor  of  all 
I  can,  hath  caused  this  addition  ;  and  every  one  hav- 
ing warning  to  prepare  for  the  ship's  departure  to- 
28.  morrow,  I  am  now,  this  28th  of  March,  1631,  sealing 
my  letters.^ 


'  See  Winthrop,  i.  49. 

*  This  Letter  was  sent  by  the 
Lion,  Oapt.  Peirce,  which  sailed 
from  Salem  April  1,  and  arrived  at 
London  April  29.  Wilson  probably 
carried  it.     See  Winthrop,  i.  52. 

Dudley's  Letter,  the  most  in- 
teresting as  well  as  authentic  docu- 
ment in  our  early  annals,  first  ap- 
peared in  print  at  Boston,  in  1696, 
in  a  16mo.  volume  of  56  pages,  en- 
titled "Massachusetts,  or  the  First 
Planters  of  New-England,  the  end 
and  manner  of  their  coming  thither, 
and  abode  there  :  in  several  P4MS- 
tles."  It  contained  also  The  Hum- 
ble Request,  Allin  and  Shepard's 
Preface  to  their  Defence  of  the  An- 
swer to  the  Nine  Questions,  and 
John  Cotton's  Preface,  in  I^atin,  to 
Norton's  Answer  to  the  Questions 
of  Apollonius.  It  is  not  unlikely 
that  it  was  printed  at  the  suggestion 
of  Joshua  Scottow,  who  seems  to 


have  been  the  earliest  person  in  the 
Colony  who  had  an  antiquarian  turn 
of  mind,  and  who  had  already,  in 
1691  and  1694,  published  two  works 
of  his  own,  entitled  "  Old  Men's 
Tears  for  their  own  Declensions, 
mixed  with  fears  of  their  and 
posterity's  further  falling  off  from 
New-England's  primitive  constitu- 
tion. Published  by  some  of  Bos- 
ton's old  Planters  and  some  other," 
and  "  A  Narrative  of  the  Planting 
of  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  anno 
1628 ;  with  the  Lord's  signal  pre- 
sence the  first  thirty  years. ' '  Where 
Dudley's  Letter  had  lain  all  this 
time,  from  1631  to  1696,  sixty-five 
years,  and  why  it  had  never  been 
printed  before,  either  in  England  or 
this  country,  it  is  diflficult  to  ex- 
plain. In  1834,  that  indefatigable 
antiquary,  John  Farmer,  of  Con- 
cord, N.  H.,  printed  an  enlarged 
copy  of  it  in  the  fourth  volume  of 
the  Collections  of  the  New  Hamp- 


DUDLEY  S    LETTER. 


341 


shire  Historical  Society.  In  liis 
Preface  to  it  he  says,  "  The  copy  of 
Gov.  Dudley's  Letter  to  the  Coun- 
tess of  Lincoln,  from  which  the  fol- 
lowing is  printed,  has  lately  been 
discovered  in  a  manuscript,  of  the 
chirography  of  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  and  bound  up 
with  Johnson's  Wonder-working 
Providence,  and  Winslow's  New- 
England's  Salamander  Discovered, 
works  printed  more  than  180  years 
since.  It  is  valuable  on  account  of 
its  containing  much  more  than  the 
printed  copy  which  was  used  by  the 
Annalist,  Mr.  Prince.  It  is  to  be 
regretted  that  the  first  part  of  the 


1631 


manuscript  is  missing ;  how  much,  CHAP 
cannot  be  ascertained,  but  probably  XVII.' 
only  a  small  part.  The  description  ^^~- ^ 
of  the  bays  and  rivers  is  wanting, 
and  a  few  lines  giving  some  account 
of  the  Indians.  It  has  been  copied 
and  compared  with  scrupulous  care. 
There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that 
the  original  printed  copy  was  made 
from  this  manuscript,  just  so  much 
of  it  being  marked  as  was  print- 
ed, and  having  the  printer's  mark 
(thus  ]  )  for  the  end  of  the  signa- 
ture." Farmer's  copy  has  been 
followed  in  printing  this  Letter. — 
For  an  account  of  Scottow,  see 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xiv.  100-104. 


ROGER   CLAP'S   MEMOIRS. 


"  Memoirs  of  Capt.  Roger  Clap.  Relating  some  of  God's 
Remarkable  Providences  to  Hirn^  in  bringing  him  into  Neio- 
England ;  and  some  of  the  Straits  and  Afflictions,  the  Good- 
People  met  witli  here  in  their  Beginnings.  And  Instructing, 
Counselling,  Directing  and  Commanding  his  Children  and 
Children's  Children,  and  Household,  to  serve  the  Lord  in  their 
Generations  to  the  latest  Posterity.  —  ITeb.  xi.  4.  He  being 
dead,  yet  speaketh. 

"Boston  in  Neio- England :  Printed  by  B.  Green,  1731."  18mo. 
pp.  34. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 


CAPTAIN    ROGER    CLAP  S    MEMOIRS. 


I  THOUGHT  o-ood,  mv  clear  children,  to  leave  with  chap. 

^  '        -'  '  ,  XVIII. 

you  some  account  of  God's  remarkable  providences  • — — 
to  me,  in  bringing  me  into  this  land,  and  placing  me 
here  among  his  dear  servants,  and  in  his  house,  who 
am  most  unworthy  of  the  least  of  his  mercies.  The 
Scripture  requireth  us  to  tell  God's  w^ondrous  works 
to  our  children,  that  they  may  tell  them  to  their 
children,  that  God  may  have  glory  throughout  all 
Bges.     Amen. 

I  was  born  in  England,  in  Sallcom,^  in  Devonshire,  i609. 
in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1609.  My  father  was  a  man  April 
fearing  God,  and  in  good  esteem  among  God's  faith- 
ful servants.  His  outward  estate  was  not  great,  I 
think  not  above  ^£80  per  annum.  We  were  five 
brethren,  (of  which  I  was  the  youngest,)  and  two 
sisters.  God  was  graciously  pleased  to  breathe  by 
his  holy  spirit  (I  hope)  in  all  our  hearts,  if  in  mine  ; 

'  Salcombe  Regis  is  near  the  sea-     Prince's  Annals,  p.  368,  and  Pari, 
coast,  about  12  miles  east  of  Exe-     Gazetteer, 
ter.    Population  in  I83I,  448.    See 


346  clap's  early  life  in  England. 

CHAP,  which  I  am  not  altogether  without  hopes  of.     Four 

XVIII 

-'  of  us  brethren  lived  at  home.     I  did  desire  my  dear 

father  (my  dear  mother  being  dead,)  that  I  might 
live  abroad  ;  which  he  consented  to.  So  I  first  went 
for  trial  to  live  with  a  worthy  gentleman,  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Southcot,  who  lived  about  three  miles  from  the 
city  of  Exon.^  He  was  careful  to  keep  a  godly  fam- 
ily. There  being  but  a  very  mean  preacher  in  that 
place,  we  went  every  Lord's  day  into  the  city,  where 
were  many  famous  preachers  of  the  word  of  God.  I 
then  took  such  a  liking  unto  the  Rev.  Mr.  John  War- 
ham,  that  I  did  desire  to  live  near  him.  So  I  re- 
moved (with  my  father's  consent,)  into  the  city,  and 
lived  with  one  Mr.  Mossiour,  as  famous  a  family  for 
religion  as  ever  I  knew.  He  kept  seven  or  eight 
men,  and  divers  maid-servants  ;  and  he  had  a  con- 
ference upon  a  question  propounded  once  a  week  in 
his  own  family.     With  him  I  covenanted. 

16  29.  I  never  so  much  as  heard  of  New-England  until  I 
heard  of  many  godly  persons  that  were  going  there, 
and  that  Mr.  Warham  was  to  go  also.  My  master 
asked  me  whether  I  would  go.  I  told  him,  were  I 
not  engaged  unto  him,  I  would  willingly  go.  He 
answered  me,  that  should  be  no  hindrance  ;  I  might 
go  for  him,  or  for  myself,  which  I  would.  I  then 
wrote  to  my  father,  who  lived  about  twelve  miles  off, 
to  entreat  his  leave  to  go  to  New-England  ;  who  was 
so  much  displeased  at  first  that  he  wrote  me  no  an- 
swer, but  told  my  brethren  that  I  should  not  go. 
Having  no  answer,  I  went   and  made  my  request  to 

'  Exeter,  the  capital   of  Devon-     miles  west  by  south  of  London.    Its 
shire,  and  the  emporium  and  orna-     population  in  1831  was  28,201. 
mentof  the  west  of  England,  is  17.3 


HIS  DEPARTURE  FROM  PLYMOUTH.  347 

him  ;   and  God  so  inclined  his  heart,  that  he  never  chap. 

said  me  nay.     For  now  God  sent  the  reverend  Mr.  

Maverick,  who  lived  forty  miles  off,  a  man  I  never  i^'^o. 
saw  before.  He  having  heard  of  me,  came  to  my 
father's  house  ;  and  my  father  agreed  that  I  should 
be  with  him  and  come  under  his  care  ;  which  I  did 
accordingly.  So  God  brought  me  out  of  Plymouth 
the  20th  of  March,  in  the  year  1629-30,  and  landed  March 

20 

me  in  health  at  Nantasket  on  the  30th  of  May,  1630, 
I  being  then  about  the  age  of  twenty-one  years. 
Blessed  be  God  that  brought  me  here  ! 

There  came  many  godly  families  in  that  ship.  We 
were  of  passengers  many  in  number,  (besides  sea- 
men,) of  good  rank.  Two  of  our  magistrates  came 
with  us,  viz.  Mr.  Rossiter  and  Mr.  Ludlow.'  These 
godly  people  resolved  to  live  together  ;  and  there- 
fore, as  they  had  made  choice  of  those  two  reverend 
servants  of  God,  Mr.  John  Warham  and  Mr.  John 
Maverick,  to  be  their  ministers,  so  they  kept  a  sol- 
emn day  of  fasting  in  the  New  Hospital  in  Plymouth, 
in  England,  spending  it  in  preaching  and  praying  ; 
where  that  worthy  man  of  God,  Mr.  John  White,^  of 
Dorchester,  in  Dorset,  was  present,  and  preached  unto 
us  the  word  of  God  in  the  fore  part  of  the  day  ;  and 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  day,  as  the  people  did  solemn- 
ly make  choice  of  and  call  those  godly  ministers  to 
be  their  officers,  so  also  the  reverend  Mr.  Warham^ 

'  See  pages  310  and  123.  only    facts     mentioned    concerning 

^  See  note  '  on  page  26.  him  are,  that  he  was  the  first  minis- 

'  John  Warham  remained  in  the  ter   in    New-England  who   used    a 

ministry  at  Dorchester  till  Septem-  manuscript  in  the  pulpit,  and  that  he 

ber,  1636,  when  he   removed,  witli  was  subject  to  fits   of  religious  me- 

the   greater  part  of  his  cjiurch,  to  lancholy,  so  much  so,  that  at  times, 

Windsor  in  Connecticut,  and  formed  when  he  had  administered  the  com- 

the  first   settlement   in   that  place,  munion   to   his  people,   he   shrunk 

where  he  died  April  1,1670.     The  from   partaking  of  it  himself.     Ful- 


348 


ARRIVAL    AT    NANTASKET    AND    CHARLESTOWN. 


1630. 


May 
30. 


and  Mr.  Maverick^  did  accept  thereof,  and  expressed 
the  same.  So  we  came,  by  the  good  hand  of  the 
Lord,  through  the  deeps  comfortably,  having  preach- 
ing or  expounding  of  the  word  of  God  every  day  for 
ten  weeks  together  by  our  ministers. 

When  we  came  to  Nantasket,  Capt.  Squeb,  who 
was  captain  of  that  great  ship  of  four  hundred  tons,^ 
would  not  bring  us  into  Charles  river,  as  he  was 
bound  to  do,  but  put  us  ashore  and  our  goods  on 
Nantasket  Point,  and  left  us  to  shift  for  ourselves  in 
a  forlorn  place  in  this  wilderness.  But,  as  it  pleased 
God,  we  got  a  boat  of  some  old  planters,  and  laded 
her  with  goods  ;  and  some  able  men,  well  armed, 
went  in  her  unto  Charlestown,  where  we  found  some 


ler,  the  Plymcuth  physician,  in  his 
letter  to  Gov.  Bradford,  dated  June 
28,  1630,  says,  "  I  have  been  at 
Mattapan,  at  the  request  of  Mr. 
Warham.  I  had  conference  with 
them  till  I  was  weary.  Mr.  War- 
ham  holds  that  the  visible  church 
may  consist  of  a  mixed  people,  god- 
ly and  openly  ungodly;  upon  which 
point  we  had  all  our  conference,  to 
which,  I  trust,  the  Lord  will  give  a 
blessing."  He  lost  his  wife  in 
1634.  His  daughter  Eunice  mar- 
ried Rev.  Eleazer  Mather,  son  of 
Richard  Mather,  of  Dorchester,  and 
first  minister  of  the  church  at  North- 
ampton ;  and  her  only  daughter, 
Eunice,  was  the  wife  of  Rev.  John 
Williams,  of  Deerfield,  and  was 
killed  by  the  Indians  and  French 
under  Hertel  de  Rouville,  when 
tliat  town  was  burnt,  and  her  hus- 
band and  children  carried  into  cap- 
tivity, in  March,  1704.  See  Ma- 
ther, i.  399  ;  Winthrop,  i.  385  ; 
Trumbull's  Conn.  i.  65,  467  ;  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.  iii.  74  ;  Hoyt's  Indian 
Wars,  p.  186  ;  Williams's  Redeem- 
ed Captive,  printed  in  1706. 

'  John  Maverick  intended  to  ac- 
company his  church  to  Windsor, 
bill    was    prevented    by    his   death, 


which  occurred  Feb.  3,  1636,  in  his 
60th  year.  Winthrop  says  that 
"  he  was  a  man  of  a  very  humble 
spirit,  and  faithful  in  furthering  the 
work  of  the  Lord  here,  both  in  the 
churches  and  civil  state."  The 
only  fact  that  he  mentions  about 
him  is,  his  narrow  escape  one  day 
from  the  explosion  of  a  small  barrel 
of  gunpowder,  some  of  which  he 
was  drying  in  a  fire-pan  in  the  new 
meeting-house  in  Dorchester  !  See 
Winthrop,  i.  72,  181. 

Prince  says,  that  "Mr.  Maverick 
was  the  elder  person ;  that  they  had 
both  been  ministers  in  the  Church 
of  England,  and  had  therefore  been 
ordained  by  some  bishop  or  other  ; 
as  none  other  in  those  days  were 
allowed  to  preach  in  that  kingdom, 
nor  any  separate  congregation  al- 
lowed there  till  the  Civil  Wars  be- 
gan in  1642.  Nor  would  Mr.  Mav- 
erick and  Warham  have  been  allow- 
ed to  form  a  Congregational  church 
at  Plymouth  in  England,  were  it 
not  of  those  who  had  taken  their 
passage  for  New-England,  and  were 
just  ready  to  sail  hither."  See 
Prince's  Annals,  p.  369. 

*  Tbe  Mary  &  Jolm.  See  page 
311. 


THE    FIRST    LANDING    AT    WATERTOWN.  349 

wififwams   and  one  house  ;^    and  in  the  house  there  chap. 

-11111    x^iii- 
was   a  man  which  had  a  boiled  bass,  but  no  bread,  

that  we  see.  But  we  did  eat  of  his  bass,  and  then  ^*^'^^- 
went  up  Charles  river,  until  the  river  grew  narrow 
and  shallow,  and  there  we  landed  our  goods  with 
much  labor  and  toil,  the  bank  being  steep  ;^  and 
night  coming  on,  we  were  informed  that  there  were 
hard  by  us  three  hundred  Indians.  One  English- 
man, that  could  speak  the  Indian  language,  (an  old 
planter,)  went  to  them,  and  advised  them  not  to 
come  near  us  in  the  night  ;  and  they  hearkened  to 
his  counsel,  and  came  not.  I  myself  was  one  of  the 
sentinels  that  first  night.  Our  captain  was  a  Low  June. 
Country  soldier,  one  Mr.  Southcot,^  a  brave  soldier. 
In  the  morning,  some  of  the  Indians  came  and  stood 
at  a  distance  off,  looking  at  us,  but  came  not  near  us. 
But  when  they  had  been  a  while  in  view,  some  of 
them  came  and  held  out  a  great  bass  towards  us  ;  so 
we  sent  a  man  with  a  biscuit,  and  changed  the  cake 
for  the  bass.  Afterwards,  they  supplied  us  with 
bass,  exchanging  a  bass  for  a  biscuit  cake,  and  were 
very  friendly  unto  us. 

Oh,  dear  children !  forget  not  what  care  God  had 

^  Probably  the   "  English  palisa-        ^  Capt.  Richard  Southcot  was  one 

doed  and  thatched  house,"   which  of  the  first  settlers  at  Dorchester, 

the  Spragues  found  on  their  amval  At   a   Court   held   July  26,    1631, 

at    Charlestown,    "  wherein    lived  "  Capt.  Southcot  hath  liberty  to  go 

Thomas  Walford,  a  smith."     See  for   England,   promising    to   return 

the   Charlestown   Records,   in    the  with  all    convenient    speed."     He 

next  chapter  of  this  volume.  probably  never   came   back,  as   his 

-  The  place  where  they  landed  is  name  does  not  afterwards  occur  in 
supposed  to  be  near  the  spot  where  our  annals.  Had  he  been  here, 
the  United  States'  Arsenal  now  this  "  brave  Low  Country  soldier " 
stands.  This  part  of  Watertown  would  undoubtedly  have  been  en- 
was,  till  quite  a  recent  period,  called  gaged  in  the  Pequot  War.  See 
Dorchester  Fields,  and  it  is  so  called  Winthrop,  i.  57,  ii.  361;  Prince, 
in  the  town  records.  See  Francis's  p.  358  ;  Blake's  Annals  of  Dorches- 
Hist.  of  Watertown,  pp.  9,  10,  and  ter,  p.  10;  Harris's  Memorials  of 
Holmes's  Annals,  i.  203.  the  First  Church  in  Dorchester,  p.  64. 


I 


350 


REMOVAL    TO    DORCHESTER. 


CHAP,  over  his  dear  servants,  to  watch  over  us  and  protect 

us    in    our   weak   beginnings.     Capt.  Squeb  turned 

^^^^-  ashore  us  and  our  goods,  like  a  merciless  man;^   but 

June.  •  -  1   /-<     1  1       • 

God,  even  our  mercilul  God,  took  pity  on  us,  so  that 
we  were  supplied  first  with  a  boat,  and  then  caused 
many  Indians  (some  hundreds)  to  be  ruled  by  the 
advice  of  one  man,  not  to  come  near  us.  Alas, 
had  they  come  upon  us,  how  soon  might  they  have 
destroyed  us  !  I  think  we  were  not  above  ten  in 
number.  But  God  caused  the  Indians  to  help  us 
with  fish  at  very  cheap  rates.  We  had  not  been 
there  many  days,  (although  by  our  diligence  we  had 
got  up  a  kind  of  shelter  to  save  our  goods  in,)  but 
we  had  order  to  come  away  from  that  place,  which 
was  about  Watertown,  unto  a  place  called  Mattapan, 
now  Dorchester,  because  there  was  a  neck^  of  land 
fit  to  keep  our  cattle  on.  So  we  removed,  and  came 
to  Mattapan.  The  Indians  there  also  were  kind 
unto  us. 
12.  Not  long  after  came  our  renowned  and  blessed 
Governor,  and  divers  of  his  Assistants  with  him. 
Their  ships  came  into  Charles  river,  and  many  pas- 
sengers landed  at  Charlestown,  many  of  whom  died 
the  winter  following.  Governor  Winthrop  purposed 
to  set  down  his  station  about  Cambridge,  or  some- 

'  Winthrop,  in  his  Journal,  under  rived  from  some  early  document  left 

June  17,  says,  "As  we  came  home,  by  the  first  settlers  of  Windsor,  who 

(from  Charlestown  to  Salem,)  we  came  in  the  ship.     See  Winthrop's 

came   by  Nantasket,  and   sent   for  Hist.    i.   28,    and  Trumbull's  Con- 

Capt.    Squib   ashore,  and   ended  a  necticut,  i.  23. 

dilference  between  him  and  the  pas-  ^  This  neck  was  called  Dorches- 

sengers,"  undoubtedly  growing  out  tor  Neck  till  it  was  annexed  to  the 

of  his  recent  ill  treatment  of  them  ;  metropoUs  in  1804,  since  which  time 

and   Trumbull    says    that    "  Capt.  it  has    been  called    South   Boston. 

Squeb   was   afterwards   obliged    to  Sec  Harris's  History  of  Dorchester 

pay   damages    for    this    conduct."  in   Mass.  Hist.  Coll.    ix.    162,    and 

This  information  he  may  have  de-  Snow's  Hist,  of  Boston,  p.  319. 


SCARCITY    OF    PROVISIONS.  351 

where  on  the  river ;  but  viewina;  the  place,  liked  chap. 

'  »  r  5  XVIII. 

that  plain  neck,  that  was  called  then  Blackstone's  

Neck,  now  Boston.^  But  in  the  mean  time,  before  i^^^- 
they  could  build  at  Boston,  they  lived  many  of  them 
in  tents  and  wigwams  at  Charlestown,  their  meeting- 
place  being  abroad  under  a  tree,  where  I  have  heard 
Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Phillips  preach  many  a  good 
sermon. 

Now  coming  into  this  country,  I  found  it  a  vacant 
wilderness,  in  respect  of  English.  There  w^ere  in- 
deed some  English  at  Plymouth  and  Salem,  and  some 
few  at  Charlestown,^  who  were  very  destitute  when 
we  came  ashore ;  and  planting  time  being  past, 
shortly  after  provision  was  not  to  be  had  for  money. 
I  wrote  to  my  friends,  namely  to  my  dear  father,  to 
send  me  some  provision  ;  which  accordingly  he  did, 
and  also  gave  order  to  one  of  his  neighbours  to  sup- 
ply me  with  what  I  needed,  (he  being  a  seaman  ;) 
who  coming  hither,  supplied  me  with  divers  things. 
But  before  this  supply  came,  yea,  and  after  too,  (that 
being  spent,  and  the  then  unsubdued  wilderness 
yielding  little  food,)  many  a  time  if  I  could  have  filled 
my  belly,  though  with  mean  victuals,  it  would  have 
been  sweet  unto  me.  Fish  was  a  good  help  unto 
me  and  others.  Bread  was  so  very  scarce,  that 
sometimes  I  thought  the  very  crusts  of  my  father's 
table  would  have  been  very  sweet  unto  me.  And 
when  I  could  have  meal  and  water  and  salt  boiled 
together,  it  was  so  good,  who  could  wish  better  ? 

In  our  beginning  many  were  in  great  straits  for 

'    See  note  ^  on  page  169.  who  came  from  Salem  to  Charles- 

-    These    were      probably      the     town  the  year  previous. 
Spragues    and    their    companions, 


352  SUFFERINGS    FROM    FAIMINE. 

CHAP,  want  of   provision  for    themselves   and  their  little 

XVIII.  ^ 

ones.     Oh  th3  hunger   that  many  suffered,  and  saw 

1630.  j^Q  hope  in  an  eye  of  reason  to  be  supplied,  only  by 
clams,  and  muscles,  and  fish.  We  did  quickly  build 
boats,  and  some  went  a  fishing.  But  bread  was  with 
many  a  very  scarce  thing,  and  flesh  of  all  kind  as 
scarce.  And  in  those  days,  in  our  straits,  though  I 
cannot  say  God  sent  a  raven  to  feed  us,  as  he  did 
the  prophet  Elijah,  yet  this  I  can  say,  to  the  praise 
of  God's  glory,  that  he  sent  not  only  poor  ravenous 
Indians,  which  came  with  their  baskets  of  corn  on 
their  backs  to  trade  with  us,  (which  was  a  good  sup- 
ply unto  many,)  but  also  sent  ships  from  Holland 
and  from  Ireland  with  provisions,  and  Indian  corn 
from  Virginia,  to  supply  the  wants  ^  of  his  dear  ser- 
vants in  this  wilderness,  both  for  food  and  raiment. 
And  when  people's  wants  were  great,  not  only  in 
one  town  but  in  divers  towns,  such  was  the  godly 
wisdom,  care,   and  prudence,   (not  selfishness,  but 

*  Edward  Johnson,  an  eye-wit-  himself  among  the  Indians  for  corn, 
ness,  gives  a  graphic  description  of  and  can  get  none  ;  as  also  onr  hon- 
the  scarcity  of  provisions  among  the  ored  Governor  hath  distributed  his 
first  colonists.  "  In  the  absence  of  so  far,  that  a  day  or  two  moT-e  will 
bread,  they  feasted  themselves  with  put  an  end  to  his  store,  and  all  the 
fish.  The  women  once  a  day,  as  rest.  And  yet,  methinks,  our  child- 
the  tide  gave  way,  resorted  to  the  ren  are  as  cheerful,  fat,  and  lusty, 
muscle  and  clam  banks,  (which  are  with  feeding  upon  those  muscles, 
a  fish  as  big  as  horse-muscles,)  clams,  and  other  fish,  as  they  were 
where  they  daily  gathered  their  in  England  with  their  fill  of  bread  ; 
families  food.  Quoth  one,  '  My  which  makes  me  cheerful  in  the 
husband  hath  travelled  as  far  as  Lord's  providing  for  us ;  being  fur- 
Plymouth,  (which  is  near  forty  ther  confirmed  by  the  exhortation  of 
miles,)  and  hath  with  great  toil  our  pastor  to  trust  the  Lord  with  pro- 
brought  a  little  corn  home  with  him ;  viding  for  us,  whose  is  the  earth  and 
and  before  that  is  spent,  the  Lord  the  fulness  thereof.'  And  as  they 
will  assuredly  provide.'  Quoth  the  were  encouraging  one  another,  they 
other,  '  Our  last  peck  of  meal  is  now  lift  up  their  eyes,  and  saw  two  ships 
in  the  oven  at  home  a  baking,  and  coming  in  ;  and  presently  this  news 
many  of  our  godly  neighbours  have  came  to  their  ears,  that  they  were 
quite  spent  all,  and  we  owe  one  loaf  come  from  Ireland,  full  of  victuals." 
of  that  little  we  have.'  Then  spake  See  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xiii.  125. 
a  third,  '  Mv  husband  hath  ventured 


THE    CHARITY    AND    TRUST    OF    THE    PEOPLE.  353 

self-denial,)  of  our   Governor  Winthrop  and  his  As-  S^f.^- 

sistants,  that  when  a  ship  came  laden  with  provisions, 

they  did  order  that  the  whole  cargo  should  be  bought  ^^^^• 
for  a  general  stock  ;  and  so  accordingly  it  was,  and 
distribution  was  made  to  every  town,  and  to  every 
person  in  each  town,  as  every  man  had  need.^  Thus 
God  was  pleased  to  care  for  his  people  in  times  of 
straits,  and  to  fill  his  servants  with  food  and  glad- 
ness. Then  did  all  the  servants  of  God  bless  his 
holy  name,  and  love  one  another  with  pure  hearts 
fervently. 

In  those  days  God  did  cause  his  people  to  trust  in 
him,  and  to  be  contented  with  mean  things.  It  was 
not  accounted  a  strange  thing  in  those  days  to  drink 
water,  and  to  eat  samp  or  hominy  without  butter  or 
milk.  Indeed,  it  would  have  been  a  strange  thing 
to  see  a  piece  of  roast  beef,  mutton,  or  veal ;  though 
it  was  not  long  before  there  was  roast  goat.  After 
the  first  winter,  we  w^ere  very  healthy,  though  some  ifisi. 
of  us  had  no  great  store  of  corn.  The  Indians  did 
sometimes  bring  corn,  and  truck  with  us  for  clothing 
and  knives ;  and  once  I  had  a  peck  of  corn,  or  there- 
abouts, for  a  little  puppy-dog.  Frost-fish,  muscles, 
and  clams  were  a  relief  to  many.  If  our  provision 
be  better  now  than  it  was  then,  let  us  not,  and  do 
you,  dear  children,  take  heed  that  you  do  not,  forget 
the  Lord  our  God.  You  have  better  food  and  rai- 
ment than  was  in  former  times  ;  but  have  you  better 
hearts  than  your  forefathers  had  ?    If  so,  rejoice  in 

'  Winthrop  mentions    the   same  provisions  at  fifty  in  the  hundred, 

circumstance  under  April  12,  1636.  (which  saved  the  country  jC200,) 

"  The  Charity,  of  Dartmouth,  of  120  and  distributed  them  to  all  the  towns, 

tons,  arrived  here  laden  with  provi-  as  each  town  needed."     See  Win- 

sions.      Mr.    Peter  bought  all   the  throp,  i.  185,  388. 

23 


354  THE    CONTENTEDNESS    OF    THE    COLONISTS. 

CHAP,  that  mercy,  and  let  New-England  then  shout  for  joy. 

Sure,  all   the  people  of  God   in  other  parts   of  the 

world,  that  shall  hear  that  the  children  and  grand- 
children of  the  first  planters  of  New-England  have 
better  hearts  and  are  more  heavenly  than  their  pre- 
decessors, they  will  doubtless  greatly  rejoice,  and 
will  say,  "  This  is  the  generation  whom  the  Lord 
hath  blessed." 

I  took  notice  of  it  as  a  great  favor  of  God  unto  me, 
not  only  to  preserve  my  life,  but  to  give  me  content- 
edness  in  all  these  straits  ;  insomuch  that  I  do  not 
remember  that  ever  I  did  wish  in  my  heart  that  I  had 
not  come  into  this  country,  or  wish  myself  back  again 
to  my  father's  house.  Yea,  I  was  so  far  from  that, 
that  I  wished  and  advised  some  of  my  dear  brethren 
to  come  hither  also  ;  and  accordingly  one  of  my 
brothers,'  and  those  two  that  married  my  two  sisters, 

1633.  sold  their  means  and  came  hither.^  The  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  was  so  plainly  held  out  in  the  preaching  of 
the  Gospel  unto  poor  lost  sinners,  and  the  absolute 
necessity  of  the  new  birth,  and  God's  holy  spirit  in 
those  days  was  pleased  to  accompany  the  word  with 
such  efficacy  upon  the  hearts  of  many,  that  our  hearts 
were  taken  off  from  Old  England  and  set  upon  heaven. 
The  discourse  not  only  of  the  aged,  but  of  the  youth 
also,  was  not,  "How  shall  we  go  to  England?" 
(though  some  few  did  not  only  so  discourse,  but  also 

'  This  was  Edward,  an  elder  bro-  for  his   fo-st  wife  a  sister  of  Roger 

ther,  who   came  over   in   1633,  and  Clap,     whose     name    was    Sarah, 

settled    in    Dorchester,    where    he  George   Weeks  married   the   other 

died,  Jan.  8,  1664.  sister.     Of  the  35  voters  of  the  name 

*  There   were   three   cousins    of  of  Clap  now  living  in   Dorchester, 

Roorer  Clap,  the  sons  of  his   uncle  all  but  one  are  descended  from  Ni- 

Richard,  who  came  to   Dorchester,  cholas.      See  the  Collections  of  the 

Their  names  were  Thomas,  Niclio-  Dorchester  Antiquarian  and  Histor- 

las,    and   John.     Nicholas    married  ical  Society,   No.  1,  pp.  vi.-xi.  62. 


THE    POWER    OF    RELIGION.  355 

went  back  again,)  but  "How  shall  we  go  to  heaven?  ^f^^- 

Have  I  true   grace  wrought  in  my  heart  ?    Have  I 

Christ  or  no  ?  "  0  how  did  men  and  women,  young  ^^^^• 
and  old,  pray  for  grace,  beg  for  Christ  in  those  days. 
And  it  was  not  in  vain.  Many  were  converted,  and 
others  established  in  believing.  Many  joined  unto 
the  several  churches  where  they  lived,  confessing 
their  faith  publicly,  and  showing  before  all  the  as- 
sembly their  experiences  of  the  workings  of  God's 
spirit  in  their  hearts  to  bring  them  to  Christ  ;  which 
many  hearers  found  very  much  good  by,  to  help  them 
to  try  their  own  hearts,  and  to  consider  how  it  was 
with  them,  whether  any  work  of  God's  spirit  were 
wrought  in  their  own  hearts  or  no.  0  the  many 
tears  that  have  been  shed  in  Dorchester  meeting- 
house at  such  times,  both  by  those  that  have  declar- 
ed God's  work  on  their  souls,  and  also  by  those  that 
heard  them.  In  those  days  God,  even  our  own  God, 
did  bless  New-England ! 

After  God  had  brought  me  into  this  country,  he 
was  pleased  to  give  me  room  in  the  hearts  of  his  ser- 
vants ;  so  that  I  was  admitted  into  the  church  fellow- 
ship at  our  first  beginning  in  Dorchester,  in  the  year 
1630. 

I  now  return  to  declare  unto  you  some  of  the 
wonderful  works  of  God  in  bringing  so  many  of  his 
faithful  servants  hither  into  this  wilderness,  and  pre- 
serving us  and  ours  unto  this  day,  notwithstanding 
our  great  unworthiness,  and  notwithstanding  the 
many  assaults  and  stratagems  of  Satan  and  his  instru- 
ments against  God's  people  here.  I  say,  wondrous 
works.  For  was  it  not  a  wondrous  work  of  God,  to 
put   it  into   the  hearts  of  so  many  worthies  to  agree 


356  THE    MAGISTRATES    OF    THE    COLONY. 

CHAP,  together,  when  times  were  so  bad  in  Enofland  that 

they  could  not  worship   God  after  the  due  manner 

1630.  prescribed  in  his  most  holy  word,  but  they  must  be 
imprisoned,  excommunicated,  &c.,  I  say  that  so 
many  should  agree  to  make  humble  suit  unto  our 
sovereign  lord  the  King  to  grant  them  and  such  as 
they  should  approve  of,  a  Patent  of  a  tract  of  land  in 
this  remote  wilderness,  a  place  not  inhabited  but  by 
very  barbarous  nations  ?  And  was  it  not  a  wondrous 
good  hand  of  God  to  incline  the  heart  of  our  King  so 
freely  to  grant  it,  with  all  the  privileges  which  the 
Patent  expresseth  ?  And  what  a  wondrous  work  of 
God  was  it,  to  stir  up  such  worthies  to  undertake  such 
a  difficult  work,  as  to  remove  themselves,  and  their 
wives  and  children,  from  their  native  country,  and  to 
leave  their  gallant  situations  there,  to  come  into  this 
wilderness  to  set  up  the  pure  worship  of  God  here  ; 
men  fit  for  government  in  the  magistracy  and  in 
families,  and  sound,  godly,  learned  men  for  the  min- 
istry, and  others  that  were  very  precious  men  and 
women,  who  came  in  the  year  1630. 

Those  that  came  then  were  magistrates  ;  men  of 
renown  were  Mr.  Winthrop,  Governor,  Mr.  Dudley, 
Deputy  Governor,  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Mr.  John- 
son, Mr.  Rossiter,  Mr.  Ludlow,  Mr.  Nowel,  and 
Mr.  Bradstreet.  Mr.  Endicott  came  before,  and 
others  came  then,  besides  those  named.  And  there 
came  famous  ministers  in  that  year,  and  afterwards  ; 
as,  to  name  some,  Mr.  Wilson,  Mr.  Warham,  Mr. 
Maverick,  and  Mr.  Phillips.  In  our  low  estate  God 
did  cheer  our  hearts  in  sending  good  and  holy  men 
and  women,  and  also  famous  preachers  of  the  word 
of  God  ;   as  Mr.  Eliot,  Mr.  Weld,  Mr.  Cotton,   Mr. 


THE    MINISTERS    OF    THE    COLONY. 


357 


Hooker,    Mr.  Bulkley,    Mr.  Stone,^    Mr,  Nathaniel  chap. 

Rogers,  and  Mr.  Ezekiel  Rogers,  Mr.  Shepard,  Mr.  ■ 

Mather,  Mr.  Peters,  Mr.  Davenport,  Mr.  Whiting,  i^so. 
Mr.  Cobbet,  Mr.  Hubbard,  Mr.  Brown,  Mr.  Flint, 
Mr.  Thomson,  Mr.  Newman,  Mr.  Prudden,  Mr.  Nor- 
ris,  Mr.  Huit,  Mr.  Street,  and  many  others.^  Thus 
did  God  work  wonderfully  for  his  poor  people  here. 
Before  I  proceed  any  further,  I  will  inform  you 
that  God  stirred  up  his  poor  servants  to  use  means 
in  their  beginning  for  their  preservation  ;  though  a 
low  and  weak  people,  yet  a  willing  people  to  lay  out 
their  estates  for  the  defence  of  themselves  and  others. 
They  having  friends  in  divers  places  who  thought  it 
best  for  our  safety  to  build  a  fort  upon  the  island 
now  called  Castle  Island,  at  first  they  built  a  castle  16  34. 


'  Stoughton  in  the  first  edition  of 
1731,  and  all  subsequent  ones;  but 
in  the  copy  which  I  have,  which  be- 
longed to  Prince,  the  Annalist,  and 
contains  his  notes  and  corrections, 
he  has  written  >S/o;ie  in  the  margin. 
There  was  no  minister  by  the  name 
of  Stoughton  among  the  colonists. 

^  John  Wilson  *  was  the  minister 
of  Boston  ;  John  Warham,  of  Dor- 
chester, and  afterwards  of  Windsor, 
Conn.  ;  John  Maverick,  of  Dorches- 
ter ;  George  Phillips,*  of  Water- 
town  ;  John  Eliot  *  and  Thomas 
Weld,*  of  Roxbury  ;  John  Cotton,* 
of  Boston;  Thomas  Hooker*  and 
Samuel  Stone,*  of  Hartford,  Conn.; 
Peter  Bulkley,*  of  Concord  ;  Na- 
thaniel Rogers,*  of  Ipswich  ;  Eze- 
kiel Rogers,*  of  Rowley  ;  Thomas 
Shepard,*  of  Cambridge  ;  Richard 
Mather, t  of  Dorchester  ;  Hugh  Pe- 
ters,* of  Salem  ;  John  Davenport, f 
of  New-Haven,  Conn.,  and  after- 
wards of  Boston ;  Samuel  Whit- 
ing,* of  Lynn  ;  Thomas  Cobbett,  of 
Lynn,  and  afterwards  of  Ipswich  ; 
Peter  Hobart,*  of  Hingham  ;  Ed- 
mund Bro\^n,  of  Sudbury  ;  Henry 
Flint    and    William    Tomson.t   of 


Braintree ;  Samuel  Newman, f  of 
Rehoboth  ;  Peter  Prudden,  of  Mil- 
ford,  Conn.  ;  Edward  Norris,  of 
Salem ;  Ephraim  Huet,  of  Wind- 
sor, Conn.  ;  Nicholas  Street,  of 
Taunton,  and  afterwards  of  New- 
Haven,  Conn.  Of  these  ministers, 
twenty-seven  in  number,  fourteen, 
(marked  thus  *,)  had  been  educated 
and  taken  their  degrees  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Cambridge,  in  England  ; 
and  four  (marked  thus  f,)  had  stu- 
died at  Oxford.  Most  of  the  minis- 
ters who  came  to  New-England, 
besides  those  contained  in  this  list, 
had  been  educated  at  one  of  the  Uni- 
versities. Of  some  of  the  above,  an 
account  has  already  been  given,  and 
of  others  due  notice  will  be  taken. 
The  limits  of  these  Notes,  however, 
will  not  permit  us  to  do  justice  to 
them  all ;  and  the  reader  is  there- 
fore referred  to  jMather"s  third  book 
of  the  Magnalia,  i.  213,  to  Eliot's 
New-England,  and  Allen's  Ameri- 
can Biographical  Dictionaries.  See 
also  Wood's  Athen?e  et  Fasti  Oxon. 
and  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  247- 
250. 


358  BOSTON    CASTLE. 

CHAP,  with  mud  walls,  which  stood  divers  years.     First, 
XVIII.  _  ^  *'  ' 

Capt.  Simpkins   was   commander  thereof;   and  after 

1634.  j^jjjj  Lieut.  Monish  for  a  little  space.  When  the 
mud  walls   failed,  it  was  built  again  with  pine  trees 

1645.  and  earth;  and  Capt.  Davenport  was  commander. 
When  that  decayed,  which  was  within  a  little  time, 
there  was  a  small  castle  built  with  brick  walls,  and 
had  three  rooms  in  it,  a  dwelling  room  below,  a 
lodging  room  over  it,  the  gun  room  over  that, 
wherein  stood  six  very  good  saker  guns,  and  over  it, 
upon  the  top,  three  lesser  guns.  All  the  time  of 
our  weakness,  God  was  pleased  to  give  us  peace, 
until  the  wars  with  the  Dutch  in  Charles  the  Second's 
time.  At  that  time  our  works  were  very  weak,  and 
intelligence  came  to  us  that  De  Ruyter,  a  Dutch 
commander  of  a  squadron  of  ships,  was  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  did  intend  to  visit  us  ;  whereupon  our 
battery  also  was  repaired,  wherein  are  seven  good 
guns.     But  in   the  very  time  of  this  report,  in  July, 

1665.  1G65,  God  was  pleased  to  send  a  grievous  storm  of 
•l"^y  thunder  and  lightning,  which  did  some  hurt  at  Bos- 
ton, and  struck  dead  here  at  the  Castle  Island  that 
worthy,    renowned    Captain,    Richard    Davenport.^ 

Aug.  Upon  which  the  General  Court,  in  August  10th  fol- 
lowing, appointed  another  Captain-  in  the  room  of 
him  that  was  slain.  But,  behold  !  God  wrought  for 
us  ;  for  although  De  Ruyter  intended  to  come  here, 

'  Being-   fatigued  with   labor,  he  Hubbard,  p.  642,  and  Hutchinson's 

had  lain  clown  upon  his  bed  to  rest,  Mass.  i.  253. 

the  window  of  the  castle  being  open  ^  This  was  Capt.  Clap  himself,  as 

against  him.     Three  or  four  of  the  we  learn  from  the  following  record  : 

people  were   hurt,  and   a  dog  was  "  At  a  General  Court,  begun  Au- 

killed  at  the  gate.     There  was  only  gust  1,  1665,  this  Court  having  con- 

a   wainscot   partition    between   the  sidered  of  the  want  of  a  captain  for 

room  where  the  captain  was  killed,  the  Castle,  do  nominate  and  appoint 

and  the   powder  magazine.     No  in-  Capt.   Roger    Clap    to    be    captain 

jury  was  done  to  the  building.    See  thereof."     Col.  Rec.  iv.  651. 


BOSTON  CASTLE. 


359 


yet   God  by  contrary   winds   kept  him    out  ;   so  he  chap. 

went  to   Newfoundland,   and  did  great  spoil  there. ■ 

And  again,  when  danger  grew  on  us  by  reason 
of  the  late  wars  with  Holland,  God  permitted  our 
castle  at  that  very  time  to  be  burnt  down,  which 
was  on  the  21st  day  of  March,  1672-3.^  But  still 
God  was  pleased  to  keep  this  place  in  safety.  The 
Lord  enlarge  our  hearts  unto  thankfulness  ! 

I  will  now  return  unto  what  I  began  to  hint  unto 
you  before  ;  namely,  that  Satan  and  his  instruments 
did  malign  us,  and  oppose  our  godly  preachers,  say- 


1673. 


March 
21. 


'  The  history  of  "  The  Castle," 
from  its  conimencement  to  the  pre- 
sent time,  deserves  to  be  recorded, 
and  there  are  abundant  materials  for 
it  in  the  Court  Records,  at  the  State 
House.  The  limits  of  a  Note,  how- 
ever, will  not  permit  us  to  use  them ; 
and  the  topic,  too,  belongs  more 
properly  to  the  history  of  the  me- 
tropolis. The  first  notice  of  it  we 
find  in  Winthrop's  Journal,  under 
July  29,  1634;  "The  Governor  and 
Council,  and  divers  of  the  ministers, 
and  others,  met  at  Castle  Island, 
and  there  agreed  upon  erecting-  two 
platforms,  and  one  small  fortifica- 
tion to  secure  them  both  ;  and,  for 
the  present  furtherance  of  it,  they 
agreed  to  lay  out  £5  a  man,  till  a 
rate  might  be  made  at  the  next  Ge- 
neral Court.  The  Deputy,  Roger 
Ludlow,  was  chosen  overseer."  At 
the  General  Court,  Sept.  3,  it  was 
"  ordered,  that  there  should  be  a 
platform  made  on  the  north-east  side 
of  Castle  Island,  and  a  house  built 
on  the  top  of  the  hill,  to  defend  the 
said  platform."  Edward  Johnson 
informs  us,  that  "  there  was  a  castle 
on  an  island,  upon  the  passage  into 
the  Mattachusetts  Bay,  wholly  built 
at  first  by  the  country  in  general. 
But,  by  reason  the  country  affords 
no  lime  but  what  is  burnt  of  oyster 
shells,  it  fell  to  decay  in  a  few  years 
after.  Hereupon  (in  1644)  the  next 
six  towns  take  upon  them  to  rebuild 
it.    The  castle  is  built  on  the  north- 


east of  the  island,  upon  arising  hill. 
The  commander  of  it  is  one  Captain 
Davenport,  a  man  approved  for  his 
faithfulness,  courage,  and  skill. 
Although  this  castle  hath  cost  about 
£4000,  yet  are  not  this  poor  pilgrim 
people  weary  of  maintaining  it  in 
good  repair."  Edward  Randolph, 
in  his  Narrative  of  the  state  of  New- 
England  in  1676,  writes,  "  Three 
miles  from  Boston,  upon  a  small 
island,  there  is  a  castle  of  stone 
lately  built,  and  in  good  repair, 
with  four  bastions,  and  mounted 
with  38  guns,  16  whole  culverin, 
commodiously  seated  upon  a  rising 
ground  sixty  paces  from  the  water- 
side, under  which,  at  high-water- 
mark, is  a  small  stone  battery  of  six 
guns.  The  present  commander  is 
one  Capt.  Clap,  an  old  man  ;  his 
salary  i"50  per  annum.  There  be- 
long to  it  six  gunners,  each  jClO 
per  annum."  In  1705,  its  name 
was  changed  to  Castle  William,  and 
in  1799,  the  island  having  been  pre- 
viously ceded  to  the  United  States, 
it  received  the  name  of  Fort  Inde- 
pendence. When  the  substantial 
fortress  now  building  on  the  site  is 
completed,  it  is  hoped  that  the  an- 
cient name,  "  The  Castle,"  will 
be  restored.  See  Col.  Rec.  i.  122 
Winthrop,  i.  137,  ii.  155,  243 
Hutchinson's  Massachusetts,  i.  284 
Hutchinson's  State  Papers,  p.  486 
Holmes's  Annals,  i.  493,  ii.  412 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xvii.  56. 


360  TROUBLES    FROM    THE    ANTINOMIANS. 

CHAP,  ing  they  were  legal  preachers,  but  themselves  were 

- — —  for  free  grace  and  for  the  teachings  of  the  Spirit  ; 

^^^^'  and  they  prevailed  so  by  their  flatteries  and  fair 
speeches,  that  they  led  away  not  only  "silly  women, 
laden  with  their  lusts,"  but  many  men  also,  and 
some  of  strong  parts  too,  who  were  not  ashamed  to 
give  out  that  our  ministers  were  but  legal  preachers, 
and  so  endeavoured  to  bring  up  an  evil  report  upon 
our  faithful  preachers,  that  they  themselves  might  be 
in  high  esteem  ;  and  many  of  them  would  presume 
to  preach  in  private  houses,  both  men  and  women, 
much  like  the  Quakers.  They  would  talk  of  the 
Spirit,  and  of  revelations  by  the  Spirit  without  the 
Word,  as  the  Quakers  do  talk  of  the  Light  within 
them,  rejecting  the  holy  Scriptures.  But  God,  by 
his  servants  assembled  in   a  Synod  at  Cambridge  in 

1G3  7.  1637,  did  discover  his  truth  most  plainly,  to  the  es- 
tablishment of  his  people,  and  the  changing  of  some, 
and  to  the  recovery  of  not  a  few,  which  had  been 
drawn  away  with  their  dissimulations.  Thus  God 
delivered  his  people  out  of  the  snare  of  the  Devil  at 
that  time.  Let  us,  and  do  you  in  your  generations, 
bless  the  holy  name  of  the  Lord.  "  The  snare  is 
broken,  and  we  and  ours  are  delivered."  There 
were  some  that  not  only  stood  out  obstinate  against 
the  truth,  but  continually  reviled  both  our  godly 
ministers  and  m.agistrates,  and  greatly  troubled  our 
Israel.  But,  by  order  of  the  General  Court,  they 
were  banished  out  of  this  jurisdiction  ;  and  then  had 
the  churches  rest,  and  were  multiplied.^ 

'  The  best  account  of  this  whole  Antinomian  Controversy  in  Massa- 

afFair  will    be    found   in    the   Rev.  chusetts,"  in   Sparks's   Am.  Biog. 

George  E.  Ellis's  "  Life  of  Anne  xvi.  107-376.     The  original  author- 

Hutchinson,    with  a  Sketch  of  the  ilies  are  there  all  enumerated. 


TROUBLES  FROM  THE  QUAKERS.  361 

Many  years  after  this,  Satan  made  another  assault  chap. 

XVIII 

upon  God's  poor  people  here,  by  stirring  up  the 
Quakers  to  come  amongst  us,  both  men  and  women ; 
who  pretended  holiness  and  perfection,  saying  they 
spake  and  acted  by  the  Spirit  and  Light  within,  which 
(as  they  say)  is  their  guide  ;  and  most  blasphemously 
said  that  the  Light  within  is  the  Christ,  the  Saviour, 
and  deceived  many  to  their  persuasion.  But,  blessed 
be  God,  the  Government  and  Churches  both  did  bear 
witness  against  them,  and  their  loathsome  and  perni- 
cious doctrine  ;  for  which  they  were  banished  out  of 
this  jurisdiction,  not  to  return  without  license,  upon 
pain  of  death.  The  reason  of  that  law  was,  because 
God's  people  here  could  not  worship  the  true  and 
living  God,  as  He  hath  appointed  us  in  our  public 
assemblies,  without  being  disturbed  by  them  ;  and 
other  weighty  reasons,  as  the  dangerousness  of  their 
opinions,  &c.  Some  of  them  presumed  to  return,  to 
the  loss  of  their  lives  for  breaking  that  law,  which 
was  made  for  our  peace  and  safety.^ 

Now  as  Satan  has  been  a  lying  spirit  to  deceive 
and  ensnare  the  mind,  to  draw  us  from  God  by  error, 
so  hath  he  stirred  up  evil  men  to  seek  the  hurt  of  this 
country.  But  God  hath  delivered  his  poor  people 
here  from  time  to  time  ;  sometimes  by  putting  cour- 
age into  our  magistrates  to  punish  those  that  did  re- 
bel, and  sometimes  God  hath  wrought  for  us  by  his 
providence   other  ways.      Here    was  one   Ratcliff^ 


'  For  an  account  of  the  treatment  land  Rent  ;  Bishop's  New-England 

of  the  Quakers   in  Massachusetts,  Judged ;    SeweH's   History  of   the 

see  Hutchinson's  Hist,  of   Massa-  Quakers,  pp.  160,  171,  193-200. 

chusetts,    i.    196-205  ;    Grahame's  ^  Philip  Ratclilf  was  a  servant  of 

Hist,  of  the  United  States,  i.  303-  Governor  f'radock.    On  his  return  to 

312  ;  ivlather's  Magnalia,   ii.  451-  England,  he   became,  with  Morton 

463  ;  Norton's  Heart  of  New-Eng-  and  Gardiner,  a  violent  enemy  to 


I 


362  DIXY    BULL,  THE    PIRATE. 

CHAP,  spake  boldly  and  wickedly  against  the  Government 
^ \  and  Governors  here,  using  such  words  as  some  judg- 

1631.  gj  deserved  death.  He  was  for  his  wickedness 
whipped,  and  had  both  his  ears  cut  off  in  Boston, 
A.  D.  1631.  I  saw  it  done.  There  was  one  Mor- 
ton,^ that  was  a  pestilent  fellow,  a  troubler  of  the 
country,  who  did  not  only  seek  our  hurt  here,  but 
went  to  England,  and  did  his  utmost  there,  by  false 
reports  against  our  Governor  ;  but  God  wrought  for 
us,  and  saved  us,  and  caused  all  his  designs  to  be  of 

1632.  none  effect.  There  arose  up  against  us  one  Bull,^  who 
went  to  the  eastward  a  trading,  and  turned  pirate, 
and  took  a  vessel  or  two,  and  plundered  some  plant- 
ers thereabouts,  and  intended  to  return  into  the  Bay, 
and  do  mischief  to  our  magistrates  here  in  Dorches- 
ter and  other  places.  But,  as  they  were  weighing 
anchor,  one  of  Mr.  Short's^  men  shot  from  the  shore, 
and  struck  the  principal  actor  dead,  and  the  rest 
were  filled  with  fear  and  horror.  They  having  taken 
one  Anthony  Dicks,'*  a  master  of  a  vessel,  did  endea- 
vour to  persuade  him  to  pilot  them  unto  Virgirfia  ; 
but  he  would  not.  They  told  him  that  they  were 
filled  with  such  fear  and  horror,  that  they  were  afraid 
of  the  very  rattling  of  the  ropes  ;  this  Mr.  Dicks  told 

the  Colony.  See  CoL  Rec.  i.  86  ;  and  afterwards  resided  at  their  plan- 
Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  56  ;  Morton's  tation  at  Pemaquid.  See  Savage's 
New-English  Canaan,  book  iii.  ch.  Winthrop,  i.  61,  79,  ii.  177  ;  Wil- 
25  ;  Muss.  Hist.  Coll.  xxix.  244.  Uamson's  History  of  Maine,  i.  694  ; 

'  See  note '^  on  page  321.  Hazard's    State     Papers,    i.    315; 

*  See  Winthrop,   i.  79,  96,  104  ;  Hutchinson's  Coll.  p.  114. 
Hubbard,    p.     160  ;     Williamson's         ■»  Anthony   Dix   arrived  at   Ply- 
Maine,  i.  252.  mouth  in  the  Anne,  in  the  summer 

^  Abraham  Shurte,  or  Shurd,  or  of  1623.  In  Dec.  1638,  he  was  cast 
Short,  came  over  to  the  shores  of  away,  in  a  bark  of  thirty  tons,  upon 
Maine  as  early  as  1625,  as  the  agent  the  head  of  Cape  Cod.  See  Chron- 
of  Cyles  Eibridge  and  Robert  Aid-  icles  of  Plymouth,  p.  352,  and  Win- 
worth,  in  which  year  he  purchased  throp,  i.  287. 
tlic  island   of  Monhcgan   for  them, 


CAPT.  STONE    KILLED    BY    THE    PEQUOTS.  363 

me  with  his  own  mouth.     These  men  fled  eastward,  chap. 

XVIII. 

and  Bull  himself  got  into  England  ;  but  God  destroy 

ed  this  wretched  man.  There  was  also  one  Capt.  i6  33. 
Stone/  about  the  year  1633  or  1634,  who  carried 
himself  very  proudly,  and  spake  contemptuously  of 
our  magistrates,  and  carried  it  lewdly  in  his  conver- 
sation. For  his  misdemeanour,  his  ship  was  stayed ; 
but  he  fled,  and  would  not  obey  authority  ;  and  there 
came  warrants  to  Dorchester  to  take  him  dead  or 
alive.  So  all  our  soldiers  were  in  arms,  and  senti- 
nels were  set  in  divers  places  ;  and  at  length  he  was 
found  in  a  great  cornfield,  where  we  took  him  and 
carried  him  to  Boston  ;  but  for  want  of  one  witness, 
when  he  came  to  his  trial,  he  escaped  with  his  life. 
He  was  said  to  be  a  man  of  great  relation,  and  had 
great  favor  in  England  ;  and  he  gave  out  threatening 
speeches.  Though  he  escaped  with  his  life,  not  be- 
ing hanged  for  adultery,  there  being  but  one  witness, 
yet  for  other  crimes  he  was  fined,  and  payed  it  ; 
and  being  dismissed,  he  went  towards  Virginia. 
But  by  the  way  putting  into  the  Pequot  country,  to 
trade  with  them,  the  Pequots  cut  off  both  him  and 
his  men,  took  his  goods,  and  burnt  his  ship.  Some 
of  the  Indians  reported  that  they  roasted  him  alive. 
Thus  did  God  destroy  him  that  so  proudly  threaten- 
ed to  ruin  us,  by  complaining  against  us  when  he 
came  to  England.  Thus  God  destroyed  him,  and 
delivered  us  at  that  time  also. 

About  that  time,  or  not  long  after,  God  permitted  lese. 
Satan  to  stir  up   the  Pequot  Indians  to  kill  divers 


'  The  murder  of  this  man,  Capt.     the  Pequot   War.     See  Winthrop, 
John  Stone,  in  1633,  by  the  Indians,     i.  104,  III,  122,  148. 
was  one  of  the  principal  causes  of 


364  THE    PEQUOT    WAR. 

CHAP,  Ensflishmen,  as  Mr.  Oldham,'  Mr.  Tilly,^  and  others; 

XVIII.  ^  '  111- 

and  when  the  murderers  were  demanded,  instead  of 

1636.  delivering  them,  they  proceeded  to  destroy  more  of 
our  English  about  Connecticut  ;  which  put  us  upon 
sending  out  soldiers,  once  and  again,  whom  God 
prospered  in  their  enterprises  until  the  Pequot  peo- 
ple were  destroyed.^  See  Mr.  Increase  Mather's 
Relation  of  the  Troubles  luhich  have  happened  in  New- 
England  by  reason  of  the  Indians^  from  1634  to  1675. 
I  say  nothing  to  you  of  the  late  war,^  but  refer  you 
to  the  histories  in  print.  Thus  was  the  Lord  pleased 
to  deliver  us  at  that  time  also,  and  to  put  a  fear  and 
dread  of  us  into  the  hearts  of  the  Indians  round  about 
us  ;  and  many  of  them  did  voluntarily  put  themselves 
under  the  government  of  the  English. 

It  also  pleased  God  to  put  it  into  the  hearts  of 
16  4  6.  some  of  our  worthies,  to  consider  that  one  end  of  our 
coming  hither  was  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  to  the  Indians,^  for  the  saving  of  God's 
elect,  and  for  the  bringing  into  Christ's  kingdom 
those  that  w^ere  as  in  highways  and  hedges.  Some 
did  therefore  set  themselves  to  learn  the  Indian  lan- 
guage, and  so  taught  them  to  know  God  and  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  whom  they  never  knew  or  heard 
of  before,  nor  their  fathers  before  them,  and  to  know 
themselves,  namely,  their  misery  by  nature  and  by 
reason  of  sin.     Among  others,  the  principal  was  that 


'  John    Oldham.     See  note  ^   on  dian  Wars  ;  Increase  Mather's  Brief 

p;i{ro  Hi!).  History;  Church's  History  of  King 

-  .Tdlm   Tilley.     See    Winthrop,  Philip's  War  ;  Mather's  Magnalia, 

i.  200.  li.  ■18.'3-19y  ;  Callcnder's  Hist.  Disc. 

^  See  note  ^  on  page  306.  pp.  126-136  ;  Grahame,  i.  316-351. 

''  Philip's  War,  which  broke  out         ^  See  note  "  on  page  258. 
in  June,  1075.     See  Hubbard's  In- 


JOHN    ELIOT,  OF    ROXBTJRY. 


365 


reverend  man  of  God,  Mr.  John  Eliot/  teacher  of  the  chap. 

church  of  Christ  at  Roxbury  ;  whose  great  labor  and 

pains  in  catechising,  preaching  the  word,  and  trans-  i^*^- 
lating  the  Bible  into  the  Indian  language,  God  has 
blessed,  I  doubt  not,  to  the  converting  of  many 
among  them.  "  He  that  converteth  souls  shall  shine 
as  the  sun  in  the  firmament."  0  how  glorious  will 
the  shining  of  that  star  be  in  heaven  !  I  rejoice  to 
think  of  it. 

Furthermore,  know  ye,  that  God  wrought  wonder- 
fully for  our  preservation,  when  men  abroad  (and 
doubtless  some  at  home)  endeavoured  to  overthrow 
our  government,  and  prevailed  so  far  that  Commis- 
sioners were  sent  from  England  hither  with  such  1665. 


'  John  Eliot  was  bom  in  1604, 
about  November,  as  Prince  sup- 
poses. His  birth-place  is  unknown. 
Cotton  Mather  says,  "  it  was  a  town 
in  England,  the  name  whereof  I  can- 
not presently  recover."  He  was 
educated  at  Jesus  College,  Cam- 
bridge, where  he  took  the  degree  of 
A.  B.  in  1622.  After  leaving  the 
University,  he  was  for  some  time  an 
assistant  in  a  school  kept  by  the 
Rev.  Thomas  Hooker,  (aftei-\vards 
of  Hartford,  Conn.)  at  Little  Bad- 
dow,  near  Chelmsford,  in  Essex. 
But  the  tyranny  of  Laud,  which 
drove  Hooker  into  Holland,  led  Eliot 
to  flee  to  America  ;  and  he  landed 
at  Boston,  Nov.  3,  1631.  Wilson, 
the  minister  of  the  Boston  church, 
being  at  this  time  absent  in  England, 
Eliot  was  invited  to  officiate  in  his 
place,  which  he  did  for  a  year,  till 
Nov.  5,  1632,  when  he  was  estab- 
lished teacher  of  the  church  in  Rox- 
bury, where  he  continued  till  his 
death.  May  20,  1690,  at  the  advanc- 
ed age  of  86 .  Eliot  is  chiefly  known 
for  his  indefatigable  labors  in  preach- 
ing the  Gospel  to  the  natives,  which 
obtained  for  him  the  deserved  title 
of  The  Apostle  to  the  Indians,  and 
for  his  arduous  work  of  translating 


the  whole  Bible  into  the  language  of 
the  Massachusetts  Indians.  "  Since 
the  death  of  the  Apostle  Paul,"  says 
President  Everett,  "  a  nobler,  truer 
and  warmer  spirit,  than  John  Eliot, 
never  lived  ;  and  taking  the  state  of 
the  country,  the  narrowmess  of  the 
means,  the  rudeness  of  the  age,  into 
consideration,  the  History  of  the 
Christian  Church  does  not  contain 
an  example  of  resolute,  untiring, 
successful  labor,  superior  to  that  of 
translating  the  entire  Scriptures  into 
the  language  of  the  native  tribes  of 
Massachusetts  ;  a  labor  performed, 
not  in  the  flush  of  youth,  nor  within 
the  luxurious  abodes  of  academic 
ease,  but  under  the  constant  burden 
of  his  duties  as  a  minister  and  a 
preacher,  and  at  a  time  of  life  when 
the  spirits  begin  to  flag."  His  wife's 
name  was  Anna,  and  his  sons,  John 
and  Joseph,  were  ministers  of  New- 
town, Mass.,  and  Guildford,  Conn. 
See  note  ^  on  page  258  ;  W^inthrop, 
i.  64,  93,  ii.  303-5  ;  Mather,  i.  474- 
532  ;  Prince,  pp.  378,  408  ;  Hutch- 
inson, i.  162,  211  ;  Grahame,  i.  281- 
88 ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  viii.  5-35, 
xxviii.  248  ;  Francis's  Life  of  Eliot, 
in  Sparks's  Am.  Biog.  vol.  5, 


366  THE    COMMISSIONERS    FROM    ENGLAND. 

CHAP,  power  and   authority  that  doubtless  put  themselves 

;  (and  too  many  among  us)   in  hopes  that  they  had  at- 

1665.  tained  their  ends.  They  proceeded  so  far  that  they 
set  up  a  Court,  appointed  the  time  and  place,  and 
gave  out  their  summons,  yea,  for  our  then  honored 
Governor  and  Company  personally  to  appear  before 
them.  But  the  Lord  our  God  was  for  us,  though 
troubles  were  very  near.  He  stirred  up  a  mighty 
spirit  of  prayer  in  the  hearts  of  his  people.  This 
poor  country  cried,  and  the  Lord  heard,  and  deliv- 
ered them  from  all  their  fears.  And  the  Lord  put 
wisdom  and  courage  into  the  hearts  of  his  servants, 
then  sitting  in  the  General  Court,  to  give  such  An- 
swers and  to  make  such  a  Declaration,  published  by 
a  man  appointed,  on  horseback,  with  the  trumpet 
sounding^  before  the  Proclamation,  to  give  the  people 
notice  that  something  was  to  be  published, — which 
was  done  in  three  several  places  in  Boston,  —  that  it 
put  an  end  to  their  Court,  and  (through  God's  good- 
ness) to  our  troubles  at  that  time  about  that  matter.^ 
And  as  our  Court  did  assert  our  privileges  granted 
unto  us  by  Patent,  and  did  adhere  thereto,  so  our 
God  hath  hitherto  continued  the  same  unto  us  : 
Blessed  be  his  glorious  name  !  I  humbly  beg  of  God 
that  he  will  in  mercy  continue  those  privileges  unto 
you  and  yours  in  your  generations,  for  Jesus  Christ's 
sake.     Amcn.^ 

'  See  Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  246.  of  Boston  Castle  from  1665  to  1686, 

*  See  Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  230-  in  which  year  he  removed  to  Bos- 

25G,   535;  Hutchinson's  Coll.  390,  ton.     In  the  Records  of  the  General 

407-425  ;  Chalmers's  Annals,   pp.  Court,  Oct  19,  1664,  I  find  the  fol- 

386-389;  Grahame's  Hist.   United  lowing  order  .   "  The  Court  judgeth 

States,  i.  331-342.  it  meet  to  grant  Capt.  Roger  Clap 

^  Roger  Clap   was   a   prominent  £i,  to  be  paid  him  by  the  Treas- 

citizen  of  Dorchester,  both  in  civil  urer  for  his  service  in  laying  out  the 

and  militarv  affairs,  and  was  captain  southern  line  of  our  Patent."     He 


ROGER    CLAP  S    MEMOIRS. 


367 


was  married,  Nov.  6,  1633,  to  Jo- 
anna Ford,  of  Dorchester,  England, 
who,  with  her  parents,  came  over  in 
the  same  ship  with  himself.  He 
died  Feb.  2,  1691,  in  his  82d  year, 
and  was  buried  in  King's  Chapel 
grave-yard,  where  his  grave-stone 
may  still  be  seen.  A  full  account 
of  his  children  and  descendants  may 
be  seen  in  the  first  number  of  the 
Collections  of  the  Dorchester  Hist, 
and  Antiq.  Society.  The  family  of 
Clap  is  still  among  the  most  nume- 
rous and  respectable  families  in  that 
ancient  town,  and  one  of  the  name 
at  least  (Ebenezer  Clapp,  jr.)  cher- 
ishes the  memory  of  the  fathers,  and 
is  imbued  with  the  true  antiquarian 
spirit. 

In  Prince's  list  of  the  manuscripts 
which  he  used  in  compiling  his  An- 
nals, he  mentions  "  Capt.  Roger 
Clap's  Account  of  the  ancient  affairs 
of  the  Massachusetts  Colony . "  This 
he  obtained  from  James  Blake,  jr., 
of  Dorchester,  and  caused  it  to  be 


printed  in  1731.  I  happen  to  pos- 
sess Prince's  own  copy  of  that  edi- 
tion, which  contains  his  marginal 
corrections  and  annotations,  and  in 
which  he  has,  by  marks  and  num- 
bers, rearranged  the  whole  compo- 
sition, so  as  to  make  the  parts  suc- 
ceed each  other  in  chronological  or- 
der, which  was  not  the  case  in  the 
manuscript.  This  he  seems  to  have 
done  with  reference  to  a  new  edition 
of  the  work.  This  arrangement  I 
have  adopted,  it  being  a  manifest 
and  decided  improvement.  I  have 
also  omitted  whatever  is  not  of  a 
historical  character;  since  Clap's 
exhortations  to  his  children,  and  his 
account  of  his  religious  experiences, 
though  excellent  in  their  way,  do 
not  fall  within  the  plan  of  this  work, 
and  would  swell  the  volume  beyond 
its  assigned  limits.  The  Memoirs 
were  probably  written  not  long  after 
1676,  for  on  page  364  the  author 
speaks  of  "  the  late  war,"  by  which 
he  means  Philip's  War,  which  broke 
out  in  1675,  and  lasted  about  a  year. 


THE  CHARLESTOWN   RECORDS. 


24 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

THE    EARLY    RECORLiS    OF    CHARLESTOWN. 

Captain  John  Smith,  having  (in  the  reign  of  our  chap. 
sovereign  lord,  James,  by  the  grace  of  God  King  of  J^!^ 
England,  Scotland,  France,  and  Ireland,  Defender  of  16  14. 
the  Faith,)  made  a  discovery  of  some  parts  of  Amer- 
ica, lighted,  amongst  other  places,  upon  the  opening 
betwixt  Cape  Cod  and  Cape  Ann,  situate  and  lying 
in  315  degrees  of  longitude,  and  42  degrees  20  min- 
utes of  north  latitude  ;  where,  by  sounding  and  mak- 
ing up,  he  fell  in  amongst  the  islands,  and  advanced 
up  into  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  till  he  came  up  into 
the  river  between  Mishawum,  (afterwards  called 
Charlestown,)  and  Shawmutt,  (afterwards  called 
Boston  ;)  and  having  made  discovery  of  the  land, 
rivers,  coves,  and  creeks  in  the  said  Bay,  and  also 
taken  some  observations  of  the  natures,  dispositions, 
and  sundry  customs  of  the  numerous  Indians,  or  na- 
tives, inhabiting  the  same,  he  returned  to  England  ;^ 

'  Captain   Smith,  in  the  summer  lished  his  Description  of  New-Eng- 

of  1614,  ranged  along  the   coast  of  land,  which  is  reprinted  in  Mass. 

New-England,  in  a  small  boat,  with  Hist  Coll.  xxvi.  95-140.     The  map 

eight  or  nine  men,  from  the  Penob-  is  prefixed  to  vol.  xxiii.  of  the  same 

scot  to  Cape  Cod,  and  in  1616  pub-  Collections.    See  note  '  on  page  19. 


372  ENDICOTT    AND    HIS    COMPANY. 

CHAP,  where  it  was  reported,  that  upon  his  arrival,  he  pre- 

-- — --  sented  a  map  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  to  the  King, 

**^^'*- and  that  the  Prince,   (afterwards  King  Charles  the 

First,)  upon  inquiry  and  perusal  of  the  foresaid  river, 

and  the  situation  thereof  upon  the  map,  appointed  it 

to  be  called  Charles  river. 

Now  upon  the  fame  that  then  went  abroad  of  the 
place,  both  in  England  and  Holland,  several  persons 
of  quality  sent  over  some  at  their  own  cost,  who 
planted  this  country  in  several  parts  ;  but  for  want 
of  judgment,  care,  and  orderly  living,  divers  died. 
Others,  meeting  with  many  hazards,  hardships,  and 
wants,  at  length  being  reduced  to  great  penury  and 
extremity,  were  so  tired  out,  that  they  took  all 
opportunities  of  returning  to  England  ;  upon  which 
several  places  were  altogether  deserted,  and  left. 
Only  some  few  that,  upon  a  better  principle,  trans- 
ported themselves  from  England  and  Holland,  came 
1620.  and  settled  their  Plantation  a  little  within  Cape  Cod, 
and  called  the  same  Plymouth,  notwithstanding  all 
their  wants,  hazards,  and  suiferings,  continued  seve- 
ral years  in  a  manner  alone ;  at  which  time  this 
country  was  generally  called  by  the  name  of  New- 
England. 

At  length,  divers  gentlemen  and  merchants  of 
London  obtained  a  patent  and  charter  for  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay,  from  our  sovereign  lord  King  Charles 
the  First,  gave  invitation  to  [such]  as  would  trans- 
port themselves  from  Old  England  to  New-England, 
to  go  and  possess  the  same  ;  and  for  their  encour- 
agement, the  said  patentees,  at  their  own  cost,  sent 
over  a  company  of  servants  under  the  government  of 
Mr.  John  Endicott ;   who,  arriving  within   this  Bay, 


THE    THREE    SPRAGUES,  BROTHERS. 


373 


settled  the  first  Plantation  of  this  jurisdiction,  called  chap. 

Salem ;  under  whose  wing  there  were  a  few  also  that ^ 

[did]  settle  and  plant  up  and  down,  scattering  in  1628. 
several  places  of  the  Bay  ;  where,  though  they  met 
with  the  dangers,  difficulties,  and  [wants]  attending 
new  plantations  in  a  solitary  wilderness,  and  so  far 
remote  from  their  native  country,  yet  were  they  not 
long  without  company  ;  for  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
one  thousand  six  hundred  twenty-eight,  came  over 
from  England  several  people  at  their  own  charge, 
and  arrived  at  Salem.  After  which,  people  came 
over  yearly  in  great  numbers  ;  in  [torn  off]  years 
many  hundreds  arrived,  and  settled  not  only  in  the 
Massachusetts  Bay,  but  did  suddenly  spread  them- 
selves into  other  colonies  also. 

Amongst  others  that  arrived  at  Salem  at  their  own 
cost,  were  Ralph  Sprague,^  with  his  brethren,  Rich- 
ard^ and  William,^  who,  with  three  or  four  more,  by 
joint  consent  and  approbation  of  Mr.  John  Endicott, 


'  Ralph  Sprague  was  the  eldest 
of  the  three  brothers,  and  by  occu- 
pation a  farmer.  Their  father,  Ed- 
ward Sprague,  is  said  to  have  been 
a  fuller,  of  Upway,  in  Dorsetshire, 
England.  Ralph  is  supposed  to 
have  been  about  25  years  old  when 
he  came  to  this  country.  He  was  a 
prominent  and  useful  man  in  Charles- 
town,  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
church  there  in  1632,  one  of  the  se- 
lectmen several  years,  in  1630  the 
first  constable,  in  1639  lieutenant, 
and  a  representative  in  1637,  and 
eight  times  afterwards.  He  died  in 
1650,  leaving  a  widow,  Joanna,  four 
sons,  and  a  daughter.  In  1639,  the 
General  Court  granted  him  100  acres 
of  land,  "  he  having  borne  difficul- 
ties in  the  beginning."  See  Froth- 
ingham's  Charlestown,  p.  21  ;  Bud- 
ington,  pp.  33,  184. 


^  Richard  Sprague  was  a  mer- 
chant. He  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  the  church  in  Charlestown  in 
1632,  a  selectman  several  years, 
and  a  representative  of  the  town 
from  1659  to  1666.  He  died  Nov. 
25,  1668,  leaving  a  widow,  Mary, 
but  no  children.  See  Frothingham, 
p.  22  ;  Budington,  pp.  33,  184. 

^  WiUiam  Sprague  was  the  young- 
est of  the  three  brothers.  In  1636 
he  removed  to  Hingham,  where  he- 
died  Oct.  26,  1675,  leaving  a  widow, 
Millesaint,  and  eleven  children.  The 
Spragues  of  Bridgewater  are  de- 
scended from  him.  See  Frothing- 
ham, p.  22  ;  Lincoln's  History  of 
Hingham,  p.  45  ;  Mitchell's  History 
of  Bridgewater,  p.  306  ;  Hosea 
Sprague's  Genealogy  of  the  Sprague 
family. 


374 


THOMAS    AVALFORD,  THE    SMITH. 


1628. 


CHAP.  Governor,  did,  the  same  summer  of  anno  1628,  un- 

XIX.  '  '  1  11 

dertake  a  journey  from  Salem,  and  travelled  the 
woods  above  twelve  miles  to  the  westward,  and 
lighted  of  a  place  situate  and  lying  on  the  north  side 
of  Charles  river,  full  of  Indians,  called  Aberginians.^ 
Their  old  sachem  being  dead,  his  eldest  son,  by  the 
English  called  John  Sagamore,^  was  their  chief,  and 
a  man  naturally  of  a  gentle  and  good  disposition  ; 
by  whose  free  consent  they  settled  about  the  hill  of 
the  same  place,  by  the  said  natives  called  Misliaw- 
um  ;  where  they  found  but  one  English  palisadoed 
and  thatched  house,^  wherein  lived  Thomas  Walford,^ 
a  smith,  situate  on  the  south  end  of  the  westernmost 
hill  of  the  East  Field,  a  little  way  up  from  Charles 
river's  side  ;'^  and  upon  surveying,  they  found  it  was 
a  neck  of  land,  generally  full  of  stately  timber,  as 
was  the  main,  and  the  land  lying  on  the  east  side  of 
the  river  called  Mistick  river,  (from  the  farm  Mr. 
Craddock's^  servants  had  planted,  called  Mistick, 
which  this  river  led  up  unto  ;)  and  indeed  generally 


'  "  The  Abarginny  men,"  says 
Edward  Johnson,  "consisted  of 
the  Massachusetts,  Wippanaps,  and 
Tarratines."  See  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
xii.  66. 

^  See  note  ^  on  page  306. 

^  See  page  349. 

4  How  or  when  Walford  came  to 
Mishawum,  is  unknown.  He  pro- 
bably remained  there  but  a  few 
years  ;  for,  at  a  General  Court  held 
April  12,  1631,  "  Thomas  Walford, 
of  Charlton,  is  fined  40s.,  and  is  en- 
joined, he  and  his  wife,  to  depart 
out  of  the  limits  of  this  Patent  before 
the  20th  day  of  October  next,  under 
pain  of  confiscation  of  his  goods,  for 
liis  contempt  of  authority  and  con- 
fronting officers,  &c."  A  month 
afterwards,  he  was  fined  X"2,  which 


"he  paid  by  killing  a  wolf."  He 
removed  to  Piscataqua ;  but  still 
seems  to  have  been  an  object  of  dis- 
trust, for,  Sept.  3,  1633,  "  it  is  or- 
dered that  the  goods  of  Thomas 
Walford  shall  be  sequestered  and 
remain  in  the  hands  of  Ancient  Gen- 
nison,  to  satisfy  the  debts  he  owes 
in  the  Bay  to  several  persons."  He 
died  in  1657.  See  Col.  Rec.  i.  71  ; 
Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  53  ;  Bel- 
knap's New-Hampshire,  pp.  28,  57, 
(Farmer's  ed.)  ;  Adams's  Annals 
of  Portsmouth,  pp.  18,  394  ;  Froth- 
ingham,  pp.  2.">,  84. 

'"  Probably  on  the  south  side  of 
Breed's  Hill,  a  short  distance  from 
the  water.  See  Frothingham,  p.  24. 

^  See  note  ^  on  page  137. 


THE  FIRST  SETTLERS  OF  CHARLESTOWN. 


375 


all  the  country  round   about  was  an  uncouth  wilder-  chap. 

y  XIX. 

nesSj  full  of  thuber.  


1629, 


The  inhabitants  that  first  settled  in  this  place,  and 
brought  it  into  the  denomination  of  an  English  town, 
were  in  anno  1628  as  follows,  viz.,  Ralph  Sprague  ; 
Richard  Sprague  ;  William  Sprague  ;  John  Meech  ;^ 
Simon  Hoyte  ;^  Abraham  Palmer  ;^  Walter  Palmer  ; 
Nicholas  Stowers  ;^  John  Stickline  ;^  Thomas  Wal- 
ford,  smith,  that  lived  here  alone  before  ;  Mr.  [blank] 
Graves,'*  who  had  charge  of  some  of  the  servants  of 
the  Company  of  Patentees,  with  whom  he  built  the 
great  house ^  this  year,  for  such  of  the  said  Company 


■  Of  John  Meech,  Simon  Hoyt, 
and  John  Stickline,  or  Stickland, 
nothing  is  known  except  that  the 
two  last  were  admitted  freemen  May 
18,  1631.  See  VVinthrop,  ii.  361, 
362. 

*  Abraham  Palmer  was  a  mer- 
chant, and  a  member  of  the  Compa- 
ny in  Eno^land.  He  was  one  of  the 
fourteen  who  signed  the  instructions 
to  Endicott,  I\Iay  30,  1628,  and  in 
the  same  month  he  adventured  £50 
in  the  joint  stock.  He  probably 
embarked  with  Higginson,  and 
came  to  Charlestown  with  Graves, 
in  1629.  He  was  an  active  and  in- 
fluential citizen,  and  filled  the  offices 
of  town  clerk  and  selectman.  He 
was  one  of  the  two  deputies  from 
Charlestowm  at  the  first  General 
Court  held  in  1634,  and  five  times 
afterwards.  He  was  a  sergeant  in 
the  Pequot  War,  and  did  good  ser- 
vice in  the  swamp  fight.  He  re- 
moved to  Barbadoes,  where  he  died 
about  1653,  leaving  a  widow,  named 
Grace.  See  note  *  on  page  174 ; 
Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  9  ;  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.  XV.  122,  xviii.  146 ; 
Frothingham's  Charlestown,  p.  22. 

^  Nicholas  Stowers  was  herds- 
man in  1633.  His  duties  were  "to 
drive  the  herd  forth  to  their  food  in 
the   main    every   morning,    and   to 


bring  them  into  town  every  evening, 
and  to  have  fifty  bushels  of  Indian 
corn  for  keeping  the  milch  cows  till 
Indian  harvest  be  taken  in."  He 
died  May  17,  1646,  leaving  a  widow, 
Amy,  and  five  children.  See  Froth- 
ingham,  p.  23. 

■*  See  note  "^  on  page  152. 

*  "  April,  1633.  Agreed  and 
concluded  by  the  inhabitants,  that 
the  sum  of  i'lO  be  collected  of  the 
said  inhabitants,  and  be  paid  to  John 
Winthrop,  Esq.,  Governor,  and  the 
rest  of  the  gentlemen  interested  in 
the  great  house  built  in  anno  1628, 
by  Mr.  Graves  and  the  Company's 
servants  ;  which  is  for  the  purchase 
of  the  said  house,  now  the  public 
meeting-house  in  this  town ;  all 
which  was  accordingly  done."  It 
continued  to  be  used  as  a  place  of 
public  worship  till  1636,  when  a 
new  church  was  built  "  between  the 
town  and  the  neck."  The  great 
house  was  afterwards  used  as  a  tav- 
ern, or  ordinary,  and  in  1711  was 
called  "  The  Great  Tavern."  It 
was  probably  destroyed  when  the 
town  was  burnt  by  the  British,  June 
17,  1775.  It  stood  wholly  in  the 
Square,  opposite  the  lane  by  the 
"  Mansion  House."  See  Frothing- 
ham,  p.  96  ;  Budington,  pp.35,  195. 


376  GRAVES  LAYS  OUT  THE  TOWN. 

CHAP,  as  are  shortly  to  come  over,^  which  afterwards  be- 

XIX 

— ^  came  the  meeting-house  ;   and  Mr.  [blank]  Bright,^ 
1629.  minister  to  the  Company's  servants. 

By  whom  it  was  jointly  agreed  and  concluded, 
that  this  place  on  the  north  side  of  Charles  river,  by 
the  natives  called  Mishmvum,  shall  henceforth,  from 
the  name  of  the  river,  be  called  Charlestown ;  which 
was  also  confirmed  by  Mr.  John  Endicott,  Governor. 

It  is  jointly  agreed  and  concluded  by  the  inhabit- 
ants of  this  town,  that  Mr.  [blank]  Graves  do  model 
and  lay  out  the  form  of  the  town,  with  streets  about 
the  Hill  ;  which  was  accordingly  done,  and  approved 
of  by  the  Governor. 

It  is  jointly  agreed  and  concluded,  that  each  inha- 
bitant have  a  two  acre  lot  to  plant  upon,  and  all  to 
fence  in  common  ;  which  w^as  accordingly  by  Mr. 
[blank]  Graves  measured  out  unto  them. 

Upon  which,  Ralph  Sprague  and  others  began  to 
build  their  houses,  and  to  prepare  fencing  for  their 
lots,  which  was  afterwards  set  up  almost  in  a  semi- 
circular^ form  on  the  south  and  south-east  side  of 
that  field  laid  out  to  them,  which  lies  situate  on  the 
north-west  side  of  the  Town  Hill.'' 


'    "  The    Charlestown    Records  ^  Hence    the     street    on    which 

here  mistake  in  placing  this  in  1628  ;  these   houses   were  built   is   called 

for  Mr.  Graves  comes  not  over  till  Bow-street. 

1629.    And  as  by  Deputy  Governor  ■•  The  Town  Hill  has  been  much 

Dudley's  Letter  (p.  319,)  there  was  reduced  in  height  since  the  first  set- 

a  great  mortality  among  the  English  tlemcnt.     In    16 16   it  was   ordered 

at  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  in  the  that  it  "  should  lie  common  to  the 

winter    of   1629-30,    so    by   Capt.  town   forever,"    and   in  1648,  that 

Clap's  account,  (p.  349,)  there  was  "  no  more   gravel  should  be  digged 

but  one  house  and  some  few  Eng-  or  fetched  from   it."     Yet  in  1782 

lish  at  Charlestown  in  June  succeed-  large  quantities  of  gravel  were  taken 

ing."     Prince,  p.  261.  from  it.     See  Frothingham,  p.  94, 

*  Francis  Bright.     See  note  ^  on  and  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xii.  168. 
page  316. 


AN    INDIAN    CONSPIRACY.  377 

Walter  Palmer^  and  one  or  two  more  shortly  after  chaf. 

XIX 

began  to  build  in  a  straight  line  upon  their  two  acre '^ 

lots  on  the  east  side  of  the  Town  Hill,^  and  set  up  a  1629. 
slight  fence  in  common,  that  ran  up  to  Thomas  Wal- 
/ord's  fence  ;   and  this  was  the  beginning  of  the  East 
Field. 

About  the  months  of  April  and  May,  in  the  year  leso. 
of  our  Lord  1629,  there  was  a  great  design  of  the  April 
Indians,  from  the  Narragansetts,  and  all  round  about  ^ay. 
us  to  the  eastward  in  all  parts,  to  cut  off  the  English ; 
which  John  Sagamore,  who  always  loved  the  English, 
revealed  to  the  inhabitants  of  this  town.  But  their 
design  was  chiefly  laid  against  Plymouth,  (not  re- 
garding our  paucity  in  the  Bay,)  to  be  effected  under 
pretence  of  having  some  sport  and  pastime  at  Ply- 
mouth ;  where,  after  some  discourse  with  the  Gov- 
ernor there,  they  told  him,  if  they  might  not  come 
with  leave,  they  would  without.  Upon  which  the 
said  Governor  sent  their  flat-bottomed  boat  (which 
was  all  they  had,)  to  Salem,  for  some  powder  and 
shot.  At  which  time  it  was  unanimously  concluded 
by  the  inhabitants  of  this  town,  that  a  small  fort 
should  be  made  on  the  top  of  this  Town  Hill,  with 
palisadoes  and  flankers  made  out  ;  which  was  per- 
formed at  the  direction  of  Mr.  [blank]  Graves,  by  all 
hands  of  men,  women  and  children,  who  wrought  at 
digging  and  building  till  the  work  was  done.  But 
that  design  of  the  Indians  was  suddenly  broke  up,  by 


'  Walter  Palmer,  probably  a  bro-  eleven    children.       One    of   them, 

ther  of  Abraham,  removed  soon  after  John,  probably  the  eldest,  remained 

1642  to   Rehoboth,  of  which  town  in  Charlestown.     See  Frothingham, 

he  was  one  of  the  first  settlers,  and  p.  23,  and  Bliss's  Rehoboth,  p.  70. 

there    died,    about    1662,    leaving  ^  On  the  east  side  of  Main-street. 


I 


378       THE  SETTLERS  BUILD  ON  THE  TOWN  HILL. 

CHAP,  the  report  of  the  great  guns  at  Salem,  only  shot  off 
- — ~  to  clear  them  ;  by  which  means  they  were  so  fright- 
1630.  gj^  i\^.^^  .^\[  their  companies  scattered  and  ran  away  ; 
and  though  they  came  flattering  afterwards,  and  call- 
ed themselves  our  good  friends,  yet  were  we  con- 
strained by  their  conspiracies  yearly  to  be  in  arms.^ 

June  In  the  months  of  June  and  July,  1629,  arrived  at 
July,  this  town,  John  Winthrop,  Esq.  Governor,  Sir  Rich- 
ard Saltonstall,  knight,  Mr.  Johnson,  Mr.  Dudley, 
Mr.  Ludlow,  Mr.  Nowell,  Mr.  Pincheon,  Mr.  Broad- 
street  ;  who  brought  along  with  them  the  charter  or 
patent  for  this  jurisdiction  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay; 
with  whom  also  arrived  Mr.  John  Wilson  and  Mr. 
[blank]  Phillips,  ministers,  and  a  multitude  of  people, 
amounting  to  about  fifteen  hundred,  brought  over 
from  England  in  twelve  ships.-  The  Governor  and 
several  of  the  Patentees  dwelt  in  the  great  house, 
w^hich  was  last  year  built  in  this  town  by  Mr.  Graves 
and  the  rest  of  their  servants. 

The  multitude  set  up  cottages,  booths  and  tents 
about  the  Town  Hill.  They  had  long  passage ;  some 
of  the  ships  were  seventeen,  some  eighteen  weeks 
a  coming.  Many  people  arrived  sick  of  the  scurvy, 
which  also  increased  much  after  their  arrival,  for 
want  of  houses,  and  by  reason  of  wet  lodging  in  their 
cottages,  &c.  Other  distempers  also  prevailed  ;  and 
although  [the]  people  were  generally  very  loving 
and  pitiful,  yet  the  sickness  did  so  prevail,  that  the 
whole  were  not  able  to  tend  the  sick,  as  they  should 

'  There  is  no  account  of  this  In-  must  have  occurred,  if  it  occurred  at 

dian  conspiracy  in  Morton's  Memo-  all,   in   the  next  year,   1630.     See 

rial,  or  anywhere  else.     As  Graves  Prince,  p.  277. 
did  not  come  over  till  June,  1629,  it         ^  tsee  note  ^  on  page  311. 


SICKNESS    AND    FAMINE.  379 

be  tended  ;   upon  which   many  perished  and  died/  chap- 

and  were  buried   about   the  Town  Hill.     By  which  

means  [the]  provisions  were  exceedingly  wasted,  ^^^o. 
and  no  supplies  could  now  be  expected  by  planting.  ^  ^" 
Besides,  there  was  miserable  damage  and  spoil  of 
provisions  by  sea,  and  divers  came  not  so  well  pro- 
vided as  they  would,  upon  a  report,  whilst  they  were 
in  England,  that  now  there  was  enough  in  New-Eng- 
land. And  unto  all  this  there  [some  few  luords  missing] 
[and  yet  some  imprudently  selling  much  of  the  re- 
mainder^] to  the  Indians  for  beaver.  All  which 
being  taken  into  consideration  by  the  Governor  and 
gentlemen,  they  hired  and  despatched  away  Mr. 
William  Pearce,  w4th  his  ship,  of  about  two  hundred 
tons,  for  Ireland,  to  buy  more  f  and  in  the  mean 
time  went  on  with  their  work  for  settling.  In  order 
to  which  they,  Avith  Mr.  John  Wilson,  one  of  the 
ministers,  did  gather  a  church,  and  chose  the  said  so. 
Mr.  Wilson  pastor  ;  the  greatest  number  all  this 
time  intending  nothing  more  than  settling  in  this 
town  ;  for  which  the  Governor  ordered  his  house  to 
be  cut  and  framed  here.  But  the  weather  being  hot, 
many  sick,  and  others  faint  after  their  long  voyage, 
people  grew  discontented  for  want  of  water,  who 
generally  notioned  no  water  good  for  a  town  but 
running  springs.'*  And  though  this  neck  do  abound 
with  good  water,   yet,   for  want  of  experience  and 


'  See  pages  314,  319,  and  325.  ning  water  was  one  of  the  reasons 
^  The  words  enclosed  in  [     ]  are  offered   Dec.  14,   1630,  which  de- 
obliterated  in  the  MS.,  being  at  the  cided  the  question  in  the  negative 
bottom  of  a  page  ;  but  restored  from  about  building  a  fortified  town  on 
Prmce,  p.  313,  who  copied  from  the  the  neck  between   Boston  and  Rox- 
original.  bury.     See  Savage's  Winthrop,   i. 
^  Sec  pages  315  and  340.  38,    and    Chronicles   of  Plvmouth, 
*  This  same  prejudice  about  run-  note  *  on  page  129. 


380  NO    GOOD    WATER    AT    CHARLESTOWN. 

industry,  none  could  then  be  found  to  suit  the  humor 
of  that  time,  but  a  brackish  spring  in  the  sands,  by 
the  water  side,^  on  the  west  side  of  the  North-west 
Field,-  which  could  not  supply  half  the  necessities 
of  the  multitude  ;  at  which  time  the  death  of  so 
many  was  concluded  to  be  much  the  more  occasion- 
ed by  this  want  of  good  water.^ 

This  caused  several  to  go  abroad  upon  discovery. 
Some  went  without  the  neck  of  this  town,  who  trav- 
elled up  into  the  main  till  they  came  to  a  place  well 
watered ;  whither  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  knight, 
and  Mr.  [blank]  Phillips,  minister,  went  with  several 
others,  and  settled  a  plantation,  and  called  it  Water- 
town.  Others  went  on  the  other  side  of  Charles 
river,  and  there  travelled  up  into  the  country,  and 
likewise  finding  good  waters,  settled  there  with  Mr. 
Ludlow,  and  called  the  plantation  Dorchester ; 
whither  went  Mr.  [blank]  Maverick  and  Mr.  [blank] 
Warham,  who  were  their  ministers. 

In  the  mean  time  Mr.  [blank]  Blackstone,'*  dwell- 
ing on  the  other  side  Charles  river  alone,  at  a  place 


'  This  spring  is  supposed  to  have  beheld  the  piteous  case  these  people 

been  not   far   from  the  site  of  the  were  in.     And  that  which  added  to 

Winthrop  Church,  on  the   shore,  to  their  present  distress,  was  the  want 

the   south    of  the    State's   Prison,  of  fresh  water.     For  although  the 

See  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xii.  165,  and  place  did  afford  plenty,  yet,  for  the 

Frothingham's  Charlestown,  p.  31.  present,    they  could    find  but   one 

'^  The  north-west  field  was  in  the  spring,  and  that  not  to   be  come  at 

vicinity  of  Washington-street.  but  when  the  tide  was  down  ;  which 

^  Edward   Johnson,    one   of   the  caused  many  to  pass   over   to  the 

sufferers,  tells   us,    "  The  grief  of  south  side  of  the  river,  where  they 

this  people  was  further  increased  by  afterwards  erected  some  other  towns, 

the  sore  sickness  which  befell  among  and  in  October  the  Governor,  Depu- 

them,  so  that  almost  in  every  family  ty,  and  Assistants,  held  their  second 

lamentation,  mourning,  and  wo  was  Court,  on  the  south  side  of  the  river, 

heard ;  and  no  fresli  food  to  be  had  where  they  began  to  build,   holding 

to  cherish  them.    It  would  assuredly  correspondency  with   Charlestown, 

have  moved  the  most  lockcd-up  af-  as  one  and  the  same."     See  Mass. 

lections  to  tears,  no  doubt,  had  they  Hist.  Coll.  xii.  87. 

passed  from  one  hut  to  another,  and  *  See  note  ^  on  page  169. 


BLACKSTONE  S  SPRING  IN  BOSTON. 


381 


by  the  Indians  called  Shawmutt,  where  he  only  had  chap. 
a  cottage,  at  or  not  far  off  the  place   called  Black-  ^ — — 
stone's  Point,  he  came  and  acquainted  the  Governor  1630. 
of  an  excellent  spring  there  ;  withal   inviting  him 
and  soliciting  him  thither.     Whereupon,  after   the 
death  of  Mr.  Johnson^  and  divers  others,  the  Gov-   Sept. 

30. 

ernor,  with  Mr.  Wilson  and  the  greatest  part  of  the 
church,  removed  thither  ;  whither  also  the  frame  of 
the  Governor's  house,  in  preparation  at  this  town, 
was  also  (to  the  discontent  of  some,)  carried;^  where 
people  began  to  build  their  houses  against  winter  ; 
and  this  place  was  called  Boston. 

After  these  things  Mr.  [blank]  Pincheon  and  seve- 
ral others  planted  betwixt  Boston  and  Dorchester  ; 
which  place  was  called  Roxbury. 

Now  after  all  this,  the  Indians'  treachery  being 
feared,  it  was  judged  meet  the  English  should  place 
their  towns  as  near  together  as  could  be.  For  which 
end  Mr.  Dudley  and  Mr.  Broadstreet,  with  some 
others,  went  and  built  and  planted  between  Charles- 
town  and  Waterton  ;  who  called  it  Newtown,  which 
was  afterwards  called  Cambridge.^ 

Others  issued  out  to  a  place  between  Charlestown 
and  Salem,  called  Saugust,  since  ordered  to  be  call- 
ed Linn.^ 

And  thus,  by  reason  of  discouragements  and  diffi- 
culties, that  strangers   in  a  wilderness   at  first  meet 

*  Isaac   Johnson   died   Sept.  30.     ters  and  magistrates  had  been  edu- 
See  note  ^  on  page  317.  cated.     See   note  ^  on   page   357, 

*  A    similar   dissatisfaction    was     and  Winthrop,  i.  265. 

felt  when  Winthrop  removed  the  "•  So  called  in  1636,  out  of  corn- 
frame  of  his  house  from  Newto\vn  pliment,  no  doubt,  to  the  Rev.  Sam- 
(Cambridge)  to  Boston,  in  1632.  uel  Whiting,  the  minister  of  the 
See  page  339,  and  Winthrop,  i.  82.  place,  who  had  been  a  preacher  at 
^  In  1638,  out  of  regard  to  the  Lynn  Regis,  in  Norfolk,  England, 
place  where  so  many  of  their  minis-  See  Winthrop,  i.  204. 


382  THE    COLONISTS    SCATTETIED. 

CHAP,  withal,  though  as  to  some  things  but  supposed,  as  in 

this  case  people  might  have  found  water  abundant  in 

^^^^"  this  town,  and  needed  not  to  have  perished  for  want, 
or  wandered  to  other  places  for  relief,  would  they 
but  have  looked  after  it.  But  this,  attended  with 
other  circumstances,  the  wisdom  of  God  made  use  of 
as  a  means  for  spreading  his  Gospel  and  peopling  of 
this  great  and  then  terrible  wilderness  ;  and  this 
sudden  spreading  into  several  town.ships  came  to  be 
of  far  better  use  for  the  entertainment  of  so  many 
hundreds  of  people,  that  came  for  several  years  fol- 
lowing hither  in  such  multitudes  from  most  parts  of 
Old  England,  than  if  they  had  now  remained  all  to- 
gether in  this  town. 

But  after  their  departure  from  this  town  to  the 
peopling  and  planting  of  the  towns  aforesaid,  and  in 
particular  of  the  removal  of  the  Governor,  and  the 
greatest  part  of  our  new  gathered  church,  with  the 
pastor,  to  Boston,  the  few  inhabitants  of  this  town 
remaining  were  constrained,  for  three'  years  after, 
generally  to  go  to  Boston  on  the  Lord's  day  to  hear 
the  word  and  enjoy  the  sacraments,  before  they 
could  be  otherwise  supplied. 

A  list  of  the  names  of  such  as  stayed  and  became 
inhabitants  of  this  town  in  this  year  1629,  as  follows  : 

Increase  Nowell,  Esq.  ;^  Mr.  William  Aspinwall  ;^ 

'  It  was  only  two  years  ;  for  the  removed  to  Boston.     Taking  an  ac- 

Charlestown   church  was   gathered  tive  part  in  the  Antinomian  contro- 

and  the  covenant  entered  into,  Nov.  versy,  and  having  written  the  peti- 

2,  1632.     See  Budington's  Hist,  of  tion  to  the  General  Court  in  favor  of 

First  Church  in  Charlestown,  pages  Wheelwright,  in  1637,  he  was  dis- 

21    and    183  ;     and    Frothingham's  franchised,  disarmed,  and  banished. 

Hist,  of  Charlestown,  p.  70.  Whereupon   he   retired,  with  Cod- 

"  See  note  ^  on  page  262.  dington  and  others,  to  Rhode  Island, 

^  William  Aspinwall   afterwards  and  was  the   first  Secretary  of  that 


i 


NAMES    OF    THE    FIRST    PLANTERS. 


383 


Mr.  Richard  Pals2:rave:^  Edward  Convers;^  William  chap. 

XIX 

Penn  ;='  William  Hudson  ;'*  Mr.  John  Glover  ;'  Wil ^ 

liam  Brackenburry  ;^  Rice  Cole  ;'  Hugh  Garrett  ;  i^^^- 
Ezekiel  Richeson  f  John  Baker  ;^  John  Sales  ;^° 
Capt.  [blank]  Norton  ;^^  Mr.  Edward  Gibbons  ;^^ 
Mr.  William  Jennings  ;  John  Wignall  ;  these  four 
went  and  built  in  the  main,  on  the  north-east  side  of 
the  north-west  creek  of  this  town. 


Colony.  In  1642  he  returned  to 
Boston,  tendered  his  submission, 
and  was  reconciled  to  the  Church 
and  State.  He  afterwards  went  to 
England,  where  he  died.  See  Sav- 
age's Wintnrop,  i.  33,  245,  248,  ii. 
62  ;  Callender's  Rhode  Island,  p.  84. 

'  Richard  Palsgrave  was  the  first 
physician  in  Charlestown,  He  came 
from  Stepney,  in  the  coimty  of  Mid- 
dlesex, in  England,  and  died  about 
1656,  leaving  a  widow,  Anne,  who 
removed  to  Roxbury.  See  Froth- 
ingham,  p.  78. 

*  Edward  Converse  was  the  first 
ferryinan  between  Boston  and 
Charlestown,  and  one  of  the  first 
settlers  of  Woburn,  whither  he  re- 
moved as  early  as  1643,  and  which 
town  he  represented  in  1660.  He 
died  Aug.  6,  1663,  leaving  a  widow, 
Sarah,  and  three  sons  and  two 
daughters.  See  Winthrop,  ii.  349, 
and  Frothingham,  p.  78. 

^  I  find  no  such  name  as  William 
Penn  among  the  colonists.  It  is 
probably  an  error  for  James  Penn, 
who  was  chosen  Aug.  23,  1630,  "as 
a  beadle,  to  attend  upon  the  Gov- 
ernor, and  always  to  be  ready  to 
execute  his  commands  in  public 
business."  He  was  a  ruling  elder, 
a  representative  in  1648,  and  a  lead- 
ing man  in  the  church  and  common- 
wealth. He  died  Sept.  30,  1671. 
See  Col.  Rec.  ;  Winthrop,  ii.  213, 
216,  348  ;  Prince,  p.  404  ;  Hutch- 
inson's Mass.  i.  269. 

''  William  Hudson  removed  to 
Boston  about  1640,  and  in  1643  re- 
turned to  England,  and   engaged  in 


military  service  on  the  Parliament's 
side.  See  Snow's  Boston,  p.  108  ; 
Frothingham,  p.  78. 

^  John  Glover  removed  to  Dor- 
chester, where  he  became  a  promi- 
nent man,  was  a  selectman,  a  cap- 
tain, a  representative  in  1637,  and 
an  Assistant  in  1652.  Edward 
Johnson  calls  him  "  a  man  strong 
for  the  truth,  a  plain,  sincere,  godly 
man,  and  of  good  abilities."  He 
died  in  Jan.  1654.  See  Winthrop, 
i.  46,  212;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xiv. 
24. 

*  William  Brackenbury  was  a 
baker,  and  one  of  the  principal  men 
of  Maiden,  and  died  in  Aug.  1668, 
aged  66. 

'  Rise  Coles  was  admitted  a  free- 
man xlpril  1,  1633,  and  died  May 
15,  1646. 

*  Ezekiel  Richardson  was  one  of 
the  first  settlers  of  Woburn,  and 
there  died  Oct.  28,  1647. 

^  John  Baker  was  a  tailor,  and 
removed  from  Charlestown  in  1637. 

'"  John  Sales  enjoys  the  unenvia- 
ble reputation  of  having  been  "  the 
first  known  thief  that  was  notori- 
ously observed  in  the  country." 
See  page  385. 

'^  He  was  killed  by  the  Pequots 
in  1633.   See  Winthrop,  i.  123. 

'^  Edward  Gibbons,  according  to 
Scottow,  "being  the  younger  bro- 
ther of  the  house,  of  an  honorable 
extract,  and  his  ambition  exceeding 
what  he  could  expect  at  home,  he 
rambled  hither."  He  was  origin- 
ally one  of  Wollaston's  plantation, 
and  a  young  gentleman  "of  a  jocund 


384 


TWO    ACRES    ALLOTTED    TO    EACH    PLANTER. 


Agreed  and  concluded  by  the  inhabitants  of  this 
town,  that  the  great  corn-field  shall  be  on  the  east 
16  30.  gj(jg  Qf  j]^g  Town  Hill ;  the  fence  to  range  along 
even  with  those  dwellings^  where  Walter  Palmer's 
house  stands,  and  so  along  towards  the  neck  of  land  ; 
and  that  to  every  inhabitant  dwelling  within  the 
neck,  be  given  two  acres  of  land  for  a  house-plot, 
and  two  acres  for  every  male  that  is  able  to  plant. 
But  in  consideration  of  the  greatness  of  the  charge 
in  fencing  down  to  the  neck  of  land,  it  is  concluded, 
that  that  be  suspended  at  present,  and  that  only  a 
cross  fence  be  drawn  at  the  neck  of  land  from  Mis- 
ticke  river  to  the  water  on  the  w^est  of  the  neck  ; 
which,  being  computed,  ariseth  to  one  pole  and  two 
foot  an  acre  for  so  many  acres  as  are  at  present  allot- 
ted ;  and  that  the  cattle  be  kept  without  upon  the 
main. 

But  now,  as  the  winter  came  on,  provisions  began 


temper;"  but  being  at  Salem  in 
August,  1629,  when  the  church 
was  gathered  and  the  ministers  or- 
dained, he  was  so  much  affected  by 
the  solemnities,  that  he  requested 
to  be  admitted  to  their  fellowship. 
This  request,  however,  was  pru- 
dently declined  on  the  ground  of  his 
being  a  stranger.  He  was  soon  af- 
terwards admitted  to  the  Boston 
church.  Winthrop  mentions  Gib- 
bons's  "  farm  at  Pullen  Point ;"  and 
Edward  Johnson,  describing  the 
country  as  it  appeared  in  1630,  says, 
"  about  one  mile  distant,  (from 
Noddle's  island,)  upon  the  river, 
(Charles,)  ran  a  small  creek,  taking 
its  name  from  major  general  Ed- 
ward Gibbons,  who  dwelt  there  for 
some  time  after."  He  represented 
Charlestown  in  the  General  Court 
in  1635  and  1636  ;  soon  after  which 
he  removed  to  Boston,  and  became 
largely  engaged  in   trade  and  navi- 


gation. He  lost  jG2500  when  La 
Tour's  fort  at  St.  John's  was  taken 
byD'Aulney  in  1645,  by  which  loss, 
says  Winthrop,  he  was  quite  un- 
done. He  was  chosen  an  Assist- 
ant in  1650,  and  was  major  general 
of  all  the  forces  from  1649  to  1651. 
Johnson,  who  knew  him,  and  was 
himself  a  soldier,  speaks  of  him  as 
"  a  man  of  a  resolute  spirit,  bold  as 
a  lion,  being  wholly  tutored  up  in 
New-England  discipline,  very  gen- 
erous, and  forward  to  promote  all 
military  matters."  He  died  Dec.  9, 
1654,  leaving  two  sons,  Jotham  and 
John,  who  were  born  in  Boston  in 
1633  and  1641.  See  Savage's 
Winthrop,  i.  192,  ii.  60,  238;  Ma- 
ther, i.  329  ;  Scottow's  Narrative, 
p.  10  ;  Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  135, 
160  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xii.  86,  xvii. 
54. 

'  This  was  the  beginning  of  Main- 
street.     Frothinghara,  p.  59. 


ARRIVAL    OF    PROVISIONS.  385 

to  be  very  scarce,  upon  the  grounds  aforesaid,  and  chap. 

people  were  necessitated  to   live  upon  clams,  and  

muscles,  and  ground-nuts,  and  acorns,  and  these  got  i^so. 
with   much   difficulty   in   the   winter   time.      Upon 
which,  people  were  very  much   tired  and  discour- 
aged, especially  when  they  heard  that  the  Governor 
himself  had  the  last  batch  of  bread  in  the  oven  ;^  and 
many  were  the  fears  of  people  that  Mr.  Pearce,  who 
was  sent   to  Ireland  to  fetch  provisions,  was  cast 
away,  or  taken  by  pirates.     But  God,  who  delights 
to  appear  in  greatest  straits,  did  work  marvellously 
at   this  time  ;  for  before   the  very  day  appointed  to 
seek    the    Lord   by  fasting  and   prayer,   about    the 
month  of  February  or  March,  in  comes  Mr.  Pearce,  i6  3i. 
laden  with  provisions.      Upon  which  occasion  the    Feb. 
day  of  Fast  was  changed,  and  ordered  to  be  kept  as 
a  day  of  Thanksgiving  ;"  which  provisions  were  by     22. 
the  Governor  distributed  unto  the  people  propor- 
tionable to  their  necessities. 

The  summer  this  year  proving  short  and  wet,  our  1632. 
crops  of  Indian  corn,  (for  all  this  while  we  had  no 
other,)  was  very  small ;  and  great  want  threatened 
us.  At  which  time  here  happened  in  this  town  the 
first  known  thief  that  was  notoriously  observed  in 
the  country.  His  name  was  John  Sales  ;  who,  hav- 
ing stolen  corn  from  many  people  in  this  scarce  time, 
was  convicted  thereof  before  the  Court,  and  openly 


'  See  pages  351  and  379.     Ma-  stant  they  spied  a  ship  arrived  at 

ther  says,  that    "on  Feb.  5,  1631,  the  harbour's  mouth  laden  with  pro- 

when  he  [Winthrop]  was  distribut-  visions  for  them  all."  See  Mather's 

ing  the  last  handful  of  meal  in  the  Magnalia,  i.  Ill  ;  Savage's  note  on 

barrel  iinto  a   poor  man  distressed  Winthrop,  i.  46. 

l)y  the  wolf  at  the  door,  at  that  in-  *  See  pages  330  and  332. 

25 


386  MORTALITY    AMONG    THE    INDIANS. 

CHAP,  punished,  and  all  he  had  by  law  condemned  and  sold, 

to  make  restitution. 

1633.  Trills  winter  also  proved  very  sharp  and  long,  and 
people  were  generally  exceedingly  pinched  for  want 
of  provisions  ;  for  there  came  very  little  over  this 
year  from  England.  But  it  pleased  God  to  send  an 
unexpected  and  early  supply  ;  for  one  Mr.  Stratton 
arrived   here  with   his    vessel    in   the  beginning  of 

March.  March,  laden  with  Indian  corn,  from  Virginia,  which 
he  sold  for  ten  shillings  per  bushel. 

At  this  time  began  a  most  grievous  and  terrible 
sickness  amongst  the  Indians,  who  were  exceeding 
numerous  about  us,  (called  the  Aberginians.)  Their 
disease  was  generally  the  small  pox,  which  raged 
not  only  amongst  these,  but  amongst  the  Eastern 
Indians  also,  and  in  a  few  months  swept  away  multi- 
tudes of  them,  young  and  old.  They  could  not  bury 
their  dead  ;  the  English  were  constrained  to  help  ;^ 
and  that  which  is  very  remarkable  is,  that  though 
the  English  did  frequently  visit  them  in  their  sick- 
ness, notwithstanding  the  infection,  it  was  observed 
that  not  one  Englishman  was  touched  with  the  dis- 
ease. But  it  was  extremely  infectious  among  them- 
selves, and  mortal  where  it  took  any  of  them  ;  inso- 
much as   there  was   scarce  any  of  them    left.     By 


^  "  It  wrought  much  with  them,"  ties,  and  buried  their  dead,  and  took 
says  Winthrop,  "that  when  their  home  many  of  their  children.  So 
own  people  forsook  them,  yet  the  did  other  of  the  neighbours."  Ed- 
English  came  daily  and  ministered  ward  Johnson,  a  contemporary,  re- 
to  them  ;  and  yet  few,  only  two  cords  the  same  general  facts  in  his 
families,  took  any  infection  by  it.  History  of  New-England,  printed  in 
Among  others,  Mr.  Maverick,  of  1654.  See  note  ■*  on  page  306,  and 
Winesemett,  is  worthy  of  a  per-  Winthrop,  i.  119,  120;  Morton's 
petual  remembrance.  Himself,  his  Memorial,  p.  175 ;  Hutchinson's 
wife,  and  servants,  went  daily  to  Mass.  i.  34  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xiii. 
thcin,    ministered   to  their  necessi-  127. 


THE    CHARLESTOWN    RECORDS. 


387 


1634, 


which  awful  and  admirable  dispensation  it  pleased  ^hap. 
God  to  make  room  for  his  people  of  the  English  na- 
tion ;  who,  after  this,  in  the  immediate  years  follow- 
ing, came  from  England  by  many  hundreds  every 
year  to  us,  who,  without  this  remarkable  and  terrible 
stroke  of  God  upon  the  natives,  would  with  much 
more  difficulty  have  found  room,  and  at  far  greater 
charge  have  obtained  and  purchased  land.^ 


^  Prince  enumerates  among  the 
manuscripts  which  he  used  in  com- 
piling his  Annals  of  New-England, 
' '  the  ancient  records  of  the  town  of 
Charlestown ;  in  the  first  volume 
whereof  is  a  particular  history  of  the 
first  coming  and  settling  of  the  Eng- 
lish there  and  in  the  neighbouring 
places."  And  afterwards,  in  quot- 
ing them,  he  says  that  they  were 
"  written  by  Mr.  Increase  Nowell, 
afterwards  town-clerk  of  Charles- 
town,  and  Secretary  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Colony."  But  this  is 
a  mistake.  Increase  Nowell  was 
town-clerk  in  1636  and  1637,  and 
assisted  Abraham  Palmer  in  the 
same  office  in  1639.  But  the  re- 
cords which  he  made  are  not  now  in 
existence.  The  earliest  records 
now  extant,  from  which  the  preced- 
ing Chapter  is  taken,  were  copied 
in  1664,  nine  years  after  Nowell's 
death,  as  appears  hy  the  following 
order.  "  At  a  meeting  of  the  Se- 
lectmen, April  18,  1664,  John 
Greene  is  appointed  by  us  to  trans- 
cribe the  records  of  this  town  ;  and 
having  begun  the  same  in  a  book  as 


far  as  to  folio  eight,  most  lohereof  is 
gathered  by  information  of  knoivn 
gentlevien  that  lived  and  were  actors 
m  those  times,  we  do  approve  of  the 
same,  and  consent  that  what  is  writ- 
ten on  those  seven  pages  remain  as 
it  is."  Of  course  this  record  is  not 
a  contemporaneous  document,  but  a 
digest  from  early  papers  and  tradi- 
tion. It  contains,  indeed,  many  in- 
teresting statements,  and  some  few 
facts  not  to  be  found  elsewhere. 
Yet,  as  an  authority,  it  is  not  to  be 
put  upon  a  level  with  Dudley's 
touching  Letter,  or  even  with  Roger 
Clap's  homely  Narrative.  Its  chro- 
nology, too,  is  all  wrong,  anticipat- 
ing a  whole  year,  in  a  most  extraor- 
dinary manner,  making  Graves  and 
Bright  arrive  in  1628,  and  Governor 
Winthrop  and  his  company  in  1629. 
It  may  be  that  this  error  extends 
also  to  the  arrival  of  the  Spragues, 
and  that  they  did  not  come  to 
Charlestown  till  1629.  See  Prince's 
Annals,  pp.  xvii.  250  ;  and  Froth- 
ingham's  History  of  Charlestown, 
pp.2,  14,61. 


"-S 


WILLIAM   WOOD'S 
DESCRIPTION  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 


New-Englands  Prospect.  A  true,  lively,  and  experimentall 
description  of  that  part  of  America^  commonly  called  New 
England  :  discovering  the  state  of  that  Countrie,  both  as  it 
stands  to  our  new-coine  English  Planters  ;  and  to  the  old  Native 
Inhabitants. 

Laying  downe  that  which  may  both  enrich  the  knowledge  of  the 
mind-travelling  Reader,  or  benefit  the  future  Voyager.  By 
William  Wood. 

Printed  at  London  by  Tlio.  Cotes^  for  lolm  Bcllamic^  and  are  to 
be  sold  at  his  slio]),  at  the  three  (iolden  Lyons  in  Curne-hill^ 
neere  the  Royall  Exchange.     1634.     sm.  4to.  pp.  112. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

OF  THE  BAYS,  HAVENS,  INLETS,  AND  SEVERAL  PLANT- 
ATIONS   OF    NEW-ENGLAND. 


CHAP. 


Forasmuch  as  the  King's  most  excellent  Majesty    ^x. 


hath  been  graciously  pleased,  by  the  grant  of  his 
letters  patents,  at  first  to  give  life  to  the  Plantations 
of  New-England,  and  hath  daily,  likewise,  by  his 
favors  and  royal  protection,  cherished  their  growing 
hopes  ;  whereby  many  of  his  Majesty's  faithful  sub- 
jects have  been  emboldened  to  venture  persons, 
states,  and  endeavours,  to  the  enlargement  of  his 
dominions  in  that  western  continent  ;  wherefore  I 
thought  fit,  for  the  further  encouragement  of  those 
that  hereafter,  either  by  purse  or  person,  shall  help 
forward  the  Plantation,  to  set  forth  these  few  obser- 
vations, out  of  my  personal  and  experimental  know- 
ledge. 

The  place  whereon  the  English  have  built  their 
Colonies,  is  judged  by  those  who  have  best  skill  in 
discovery,  either  to  be  an  island,^  surrounded  on  the 

'  The  first  settlers  of  New-Eng-     and.     See  Chronicles  of  Plymouth, 
land   generally  considered   it  an  isl-     pp.  256,  368. 


1633. 


392  MASSACHUSETTS    BAY 


XX 

1633 


CHAP,  north  side  with  the  spacious  river  Cannada,  and  on 
the  south  with  Hudson's  river  ;  or  else  a  peninsula, 
these  two  rivers  overlapping  one  another,  having  their 
rise  from  the  great  lakes,  which  are  not  far  off  one 
another,  as  the  Indians  do  certainly  inform  us.  But 
it  is  not  my  intent  to  wander  far  from  our  Patent  ; 
wherefore  I  refer  you  to  the  thrice  memorable  dis- 
coverer of  those  parts,  Capt.  Smith,  who  hath  like- 
wise fully  described  the  southern  and  north-east 
parts  of  New-England,  with  the  noted  headlands, 
capes,  harbours,  rivers,  ponds,  and  lakes,  with  the 
nature  of  the  soil,  and  commodities  both  by  sea  and 
land,  &c.  within  the  degrees  of  forty-one  and  forty- 
five.^ 

The  Bay  of  Massachusetts  lieth  under  the  degree 
of  forty- two  and  forty-three,  bearing  south-west  from 
the  Land's  End  of  England  ;  at  the  bottom  whereof 
are  situated  most  of  the  English  plantations.  This 
Bay  is  both  safe,  spacious,  and  deep,  free  from  such 
cockling  seas  as  run  upon  the  coast  of  Ireland 
and  in  the  channels  of  England.  There  be  no  stiff 
running  currents,  or  rocks,  shelves,  bars,  quicksands. 
The  mariners  having  sailed  two  or  three  leagues 
towards  the  bottom,  may  behold  the  two  Capes  em- 
bracing their  welcome  ships  in  their  arms,  which 
thrust  themselves  out  into  the  sea  in  form  of  a  half- 
moon,  the  surrounding  shore  being  high,  and  show- 
ing many  white  cliffs,^  in  a  most  pleasant  prospect, 
with  divers  places  of  low  land,  out  of  which  divers 
rivers  vent  themselves  into  the  ocean,  with  many 
openings,  where  is  good  harbouring  for  ships  of  any 

'  Seepages  19  and  371.  ity  of  Cape  Cod,  are  of  a  dazzling 

*  The  sand  hills,  at  the  cxtrom-     wliitc. 


1633. 


BOSTON    HARBOUR.  393 

burthen.     So  that   if  an  unexpected  storm  or  cross  chap. 
wind  should  bar  the  mariner  from  recovering  his  de — -—■ 
sired  port,  he  may  reach  other  harbours,  as  Plim- 
mouth.  Cape  Ann,  Salem,  Marvill  Head  ;   all  which 
afford   good   ground   for  anchorage,  being   likewise 
land-locked  from  wind  and  seas. 

The  chief  and  usual  harbour  is  the  still  Bay  of 
Massachusetts,^  which  is  close  aboard  the  Planta- 
tions ;  in  which  most  of  our  ships  come  to  anchor, 
being  the  nearest  their  mart,  and  usual  place  of  land- 
ing of  passengers.  It  is  a  safe  and  pleasant  harbour 
within,  having  but  one  common  and  safe  entrance," 
and  that  not  very  broad,  there  scarce  being  room  for 
three  ships  to  come  in,  board  and  board,  at  a  time  ; 
but  being  once  within,  there  is  room  for  the  anchor- 
age of  five  hundred  ships.  This  harbour  is  made  by  a 
great  company  of  islands,^  whose  high  cliffs  shoulder 
out  the  boisterous  seas  ;  yet  may  easily  deceive  any 
unskilful  pilot,  presenting  many  fair  openings  and 
broad  sounds,^  which  afford  too  shallow  waters  for 
any  ships,  though  navigable  for  boats  and  small  pin- 
naces. 

The  entrance  into  the  great  haven  is  called  Nan- 
tascot  ;^  which  is  two  leagues  from  Boston.  This 
place  of  itself  is   a  very  good  haven  ;  where  ships 


'  Boston   harbour,    included   be-  tween   George's  and    Lovell's   isl- 

tween  Nahant  and  Point  Alderton.  ands. 

Twice  afterwards  he  calls  it  "  the  ^  See  a  list  of  these  islands,  some 

still   bay,"    to    distinguish  it  from  forty  or  more,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 

the   outer   bay,    included    between  iii.  295,    and  in  Snow's  History  of 

Cape  Ann  and  Cape  Cod.  Boston,  p.  114. 

^  The  ship  channel,  or  main  en-  ■*  The  northern  entrance  to  Bos- 
trance  into  Boston  harbour,  com-  ton  harbour  is  called  Broad  Sound, 
monly  called  the  Light  House  Chan-  It  is  not  considered  a  proper  channel 
nel,  lies  between  Boston  Light  on  for  large  vessels,  though  they  some- 
the  north  side  and  Point  Alderton  times  pass  through  it. 
on  the  south,   and  then  passes  be-  '"  See  note  ^  on  page  19. 


394  WEYMOUTH. 

CHAP,  commonlv  cast  anchor,  until   wind   and  tide  serve 

XX. 

^  them  for  other  places.^     From  hence  they  may  sail 

^^^^-  to  the  river  of  Wessaguscus,  Naponset,  Charles  river, 
and  Misticke  river  ;  on  which  rivers  be  seated  many 
towns.  In  any  of  these  forenamed  harbours,  the  sea- 
men, having  spent  their  old  store  of  wood  and  water, 
may  have  fresh  supplies  from  the  adjacent  islands, 
with  good  timber^  to  repair  their  weather-beaten 
ships.  Here,  likewise,  may  be  had  masts  or  yards, 
being  store  of  such  trees  as  are  useful  for  the  same 
purpose. 

Having  described  the  situation  of  the  country  in 
general,  with  all  his  commodities  arising  from  land 
and  sea,  it  may  add  to  your  content  and  satisfaction, 
to  be  informed  of  the  situation  of  every  several  plant- 
ation, with  his  conveniences,  commodities,  and  dis- 
commodities, &LC. 

Where,  first,  I  will  begin  with  the  outmost  plant- 
ation in  the  Patent,  to  the  southward  ;^  which  is 
called  Wessaguscus,^  an  Indian  name.     This  as  yet  is 

^  Nantasket  Road  is  still  a  favor-  mas  Weston  in  the  summer  of  1622. 

ite    anchorage.       It    lies    between  The  plantation,   however,  was  bro- 

George's  island  and  Hull.  ken   up   and   abandoned    the    next 

^  This    shows   that    the    islands  spring.     A  few  months  afterwards, 

were  at  this  time  well  wooded  ;  al-  the  ground  was  reoccupied  by  Capt. 

though   the    settlers   of  New  Ply-  Robert  Gorges,   son  of  Six  Ferdi- 

mouth,    on   their   first   visit   to  the  nando,    with    William    Morell,   an 

harbour  in  Sept.  1621,  found  some  episcopal  clergyman,   "and  sundry 

of  them  "  cleared  from  end  to  end."  passengers  and  families."     Losing 

See  Chronicles  of  Plymouth,  p.  229.  much  of  their  goods  and  provisions 

^  Bordering  on  the  Old  Colony  of  by  a  fire  at  Plymouth  in  November, 

Plymouth.     The  dividing   line   be-  some  of  them  returned  to  England, 

tween  the  Colonies  is  marked  on  the  out  of  discontent  and  dislike  of  the 

splendid  topographical  Map  of  Mas-  country.     Morell  remained  a  year, 

sachusetts,    made   by   order  of  the  and  wrote  a  Latin  poem  descriptive 

Legislature  in  1844.  of  the  country  and  its  productions, 

*  Wessaguscus,  afterwards  called  which  is  printed  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 

Weymouth,    was   first   planted   by  1.125-139.     "At  his  going  away," 

fifty  or  sixty  men  sent  over  by  Tho-  says  Gov.  Bradford,  "  he  told  some 


QUINCY    AND    DORCHESTER.  395 

but  a  small  village  ;    yet  it  is  very  pleasant,  and  chap. 

healthful,  very  good  ground,  and  is  well  timbered,  

and  hath  good  store  of  hay-ground.  It  hath  a  very  i^^^- 
spacious  harbour  for  shipping  before  the  town,  the 
salt  water  being  navigable  for  boats  and  pinnaces 
two  leagues.  Here  the  inhabitants  have  good  store 
of  fish  of  all  sorts,  and  sw^ine,  having  acorns  and 
clams  at  the  time  of  year.  Here  is  likewise  an  ale- 
w^ife  river. 

Three  miles  to  the  north  of  this,  is  Mount  Walles- 
torij^  a  very  fertile  soil,  and  a  place  very  convenient 
for  farm.ers'  houses,  there  being  great  store  of  plain 
ground,  without  trees.  This  place  is  called  Massa- 
chusetts Fields,  where  the  greoitest  sagamore^  in  the 
country  lived,  before  the  plague,  who  caused  it  to  be 
cleared  for  himself.  The  greatest  inconvenience  is, 
that  there  is  not  very  many  springs,  as  in  other 
places  of  the  country  ;  yet  water  may  be  had  for 
digging.  A  second  inconvenience  is,  that  boats  can- 
not come  in  at  a  low  water,  nor  ships  ride  near  the 
shore. 

Six  miles  further  to  the  north  lieth  Dorchester, 
w^hich  is   the  greatest  town  in  New^-England,^  well 

of  our  people  he  had  a  power  of  ^  Chickatabot.  See  page  305. 
superintendency  over  the  churches  ^  Dorchester  originally  included 
here,  but  never  showed  it.  And  in  its  territory  the  towns  of  Milton, 
thus  the  second  plantation  at  the  Stoughton,  Sharon,  Canton,  and 
Massachusetts  ended."  But  "some  Foxborough.  It  was  then  about  35 
few  remain,"  he  adds  ;  and  these  miles  in  length,  and  in  some  places 
may  have  been  the  nucleus  of  the  from  six  to  eight  in  width.  Some 
subsequent  permanent  settlement,  idea  of  its  comparative  wealth  at 
See  p.  309  ;  Savage's  Winthrop,  i.  that  time  may  be  obtained  from  the 
43  ;  Prince's  Annals,  pp.  204,  214,  fact,  that  in  this  year,  1633,  when  a 
221,  224  ;  Chronicles  of  Plymouth,  rate  of  £400  was  assessed  upon  the 
pp.  297,  342.  Colony,  Dorchester  was  called  upon 
*  This  hill  in  Quincy,  near  the  to  pay  jC80,  one-fifth  of  the  whole, 
shore;  and  not  far  from  President  whilst  Boston,  Roxbury,  Charles- 
Adams's  seat,  still  bears  the  name  town,  and  Watertown  were  each 
of  Mount  Wollaston.  taxed   only  =C48,  and  Salem  £2%. 


396  ROXBURY. 

CHAP,  wooded  and  watered,  very  good  arable  grounds,  and 

. -1-  hay-ground,  fair  corn-fields  and   pleasant   gardens, 

163  3.  ^yj^}^  kitchen  gardens.  In  this  plantation  is  a  great 
many  cattle,  as  kine,  goats,  and  swine.  This  plant- 
ation hath  a  reasonable  harbour  for  ships.  Here  is 
no  alewife  river,  which  is  a  great  inconvenience. 
The  inhabitants  of  this  town  were  the  first  that  set 
upon  the  trade  of  fishing  in  the  Bay  ;  who  received 
so  much  fruit  of  their  labors,  that  they  encouraged 
others  to  the  same  undertakings. 

A  mile  from  this  town  lieth  Roxberry,  which  is  a 
fair  and  handsome  country-town,  the  inhabitants  of  it 
being  all  very  rich.  This  town  lieth  upon  the  main, 
so  that  it  is  well  wooded  and  watered,  having  a  clear 
and  fresh  brook  running  through  the  town ;  up 
which,  although  there  come  no  alewives,  yet  there  is 
great  store  of  smelts,  and  therefore  it  is  called  Smelt 
Brook. ^  A  quarter  of  a  mile  to  the  north  side  of  the 
town  is  another  river,  called  Stony  river,  upon  which 
is  built  a  water-mill. ~  Here  is  good  ground  for  corn, 
and  meadow  for  cattle.  Up  westward  from  the  town 
it  is  something  rocky  ;  whence  it  hath  the  name  of 
Roxberry.  The  inhabitants  have  fair  houses,  store 
of  cattle,   impaled  corn-fields,  and  fruitful  gardens. 

Twenty  years  later,  viz.  in  1652,  other  cattle  of  that  kind,  about  450. 
Edward  Johnson  thus  describes  Thus  hath  the  Lord  been  pleased  to 
the  town.  "  Dorchester,  a  frontier  increase  his  poor  dispersed  people, 
town,  is  situated  very  pleasantly  whose  number  in  this  flock  are  near 
both  for  facing  the  sea,  and  also  its  about  150."  See  Savage's  Win- 
large  extent  into  the  main  land,  throp,  i.  112,  and  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
well  watered  with  two  small  rivers,  ix.  159,  xii.  90. 
Her  houses  for  dwelling  are  about  '  This  is  probably  the  brook  that 
110  ;  orchards  and  gardens  full  of  divides  Roxbury  from  Dorchester, 
fruit  trees  ;  plenty  of  corn-land  ;  ^  It  is  still  called  Stony  Brook, 
although  much  of  it  hath  been  long  and  the  water-mill,  now  called 
in  tillage,  yet  hath  it  ordinarily  White's  Mill,  is  yet  at  work  near 
good  crops.  The  number  of  trees  where  the  road  to  Brookline  crosses 
are    near    upon     1500  ;  cows,  and  the  Providence  rail-road. 


BOSTON. 


397 


XX. 


1633, 


Here  is  no  harbour  for  ships,  because  the  town  is  chap. 
seated  in  the  bottom  of  a  shallow  bay,  which  is  made 
by  the  neck  of  land  on  which  Boston  is  built ;  so 
that  they  can  transport  all  their  goods  from  the  ships 
in  boats  from  Boston,  which  is  the  nearest  harbour.^ 
Boston  is  two  miles  north-east  from  Roxberry. 
His  situation  is  very  pleasant,  being  a  peninsula, 
hemmed  in  on  the  south  side  with  the  bay  of  Rox- 
berry, on  the  north  side  with  Charles  river,  the 
marshes^  on  the  back  side  being  not  half  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  over  ;  so  that  a  little  fencing  will  secure 
their  cattle  from  the  wolves.  Their  greatest  wants 
be  wood  and  meadow-ground,  which  never  were  in 
that  place,^  being  constrained  to  fetch  their  building 


'  Compare  with  this  Edward 
Johnson's  description  of  the  place 
in  1652.  "  Roxbury,  situated  be- 
tween Boston  and  JDorchester,  is 
well  watered  with  cool  and  pleasant 
springs,  issuing  forth  the  rocky 
hills,  and  with  small  freshets,  wa- 
tering the  valleys  of  this  fertile 
town ;  whose  form  is  somewhat  like 
a  wedge  double  pointed,  entering 
between  the  two  forenamed  towns, 
filled  with  a  very  laborious  people, 
whose  labors  the  Lord  hath  so  blest, 
that  in  the  room  of  dismal  swamps 
and  tearing  bushes,  they  have  very 
goodly  fruit  trees,  fruitful  fields  and 
gardens.  Their  herd  of  cows,  oxen 
and  other  young  cattle  of  that  kind, 
about  350,  and  dwelUng-houses  near 
upon  120.  Their  streets  are  large, 
and  some  fair  houses  ;  yet  have 
they  built  their  house  for  church  as- 
sembly destitute  and  unbeautified 
with  other  buildings.  The  church 
of  Christ  here  is  increased  to  about 
120  persons.  Their  first  teaching 
elder  called  to  office  is  jMr.  Eliot,  a 
young  man  at  his  coming  thither,  of 
a  cheerful  spirit,  walking  unblama- 
ble, of  a  godly  conversation,  apt  to 
teach,  as  by  his  indefatigable  pains 


both  with  his  own  flock  and  the 
poor  Indians  doth  appear,  whose 
language  he  learned  purposely  to 
help  them  to  the  knowledge  of  God 
in  Christ,  frequently  preaching  ^n 
their  wigwams,  and  catechising 
their  children."  Johnson's  History 
of  New-England,  ch.  21. 

^  The  marshes  were  on  the  isth- 
mus or  neck  which  connects  Boston 
with  Roxbury. 

^  "  Mr.  Wood  was  wrong  in  as- 
serting that  '  wood  was  never  in  this 
place.'  It  had  doubtless  been  the 
favorite  residence  of  the  natives  for 
many  years,  and  a  considerable  por- 
tion had  been  cleared  by  burning, 
as  was  their  custom,  for  the  culture 
of  com.  Hence  it  was  sometimes 
called  the  flain  neck ;  and  compared 
with  the  surrounding  country,  cov- 
ered with  interminable  forests,  it 
might  with  propriety  be  called  -plain. 
There  were,  however,  many  large 
clumps  left,  sufficient  for  fuel  and 
timber.  The  growth  was  probably 
similar  to  that  of  the  islands.  Had 
the  peninsula  been  wholly  denuded 
of  trees,  even  the  temptation  of  Mr. 
Blackstone's  spring  of  fresh  water 
could    not  have    induced    the    first 


398 


THE    HILLS    OF    BOSTON. 


1633 


CHAP,  timber  and  firewood  from   the   islands  in  boats  ^  and 

XX. 

their  hay  in  lighters.  It  being  a  neck,  and  bare  of 
wood,  they  are  not  troubled  with  three  great  annoy- 
ances, of  wolves,  rattlesnakes,  and  mosquitoes. 
These  that  live  here  upon  their  cattle,  must  be  con- 
strained to  take  farms  in  the  country,  or  else  they 
cannot  subsist  ;  the  place  being  too  small  to  contain 
many,  and  fittest  for  such  as  can  trade  into  England 
for  such  commodities  as  the  country  wants,  being  the 
chief  place  for  shipping  and  merchandise. 

This  neck  of  land  is  not  above  four  miles  in  com- 
pass ;~  in  form  almost  square,  having  on  the  south 
side,  at  one  corner,  a  great  broad  hill,^  whereon  is 
planted  a  fort,  which  can  command  any  ship  as  she 
sails  into  any  harbour  within  the  still  bay.  On  the 
north  side  is  another  hill,^  equal  in  bigness,  w^hereon 
stands   a  windmill.       To  the  north-west,  is  a  high 


planters  to  settle  at  Shawmut  at  the 
approach  of  a  rigorous  winter." 
Shaw's  History  of  Boston,  p.  77. 

'  At  a  Court  held  Nov.  7,  1032, 
"  it  is  ordered  that  the  inhabitants 
of  Boston  shall  have  liberty  to  fetch 
wood  from  Dorchester  neck  of  land 
for  twenty  years,  the  propriety  of 
the  land  to  remain  to  Dorchester." 
Col.  Rec.  i.  94. 

*  The  peninsula  on  which  Boston 
is  built,  contained  originally  about 
700  acres.  Its  whole  length,  from 
Roxbury  line  to  Winnisimet  ferry  is 
two  miles  and  three-fourths  and  238 
yards.  Its  greatest  breadth,  from 
Foster's  wharf  to  Barton's  point,  is 
one  mile  and  139  yards.  See  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.  iii.  242. 

^  This  hill  was  originally  called 
Corn  Hill  ;  but  after  the  fort  was 
built,  it  received  the  name  of  Fort 
Hill,  which  it  still  retains.  It  is 
situated  at  the  eastern  extremity  of 
the  city,  directly  opposite  the   har- 


bour. The  fortification  was  begun 
May  24,  1632,  the  people  of  Charles- 
town,  Roxbury,  and  Dorchester 
woi'king  upon  it  in  rotation  ;  and  in 
May,  1034,  "  it  was  in  defence,  and 
divers  pieces  of  ordnance  mounted  in 
it."  See  Winthrop,  i.  77,  99,  132. 
"  This  hill  at  the  north  end  of 
the  city,  opposite  Charlestown,  and 
which  formerly  rose  to  the  height  of 
50  feet  above  the  sea,  was  first  call- 
ed Windmill  Hill,  from  the  wind- 
mill on  its  summit,  which  was 
brought  down  from  Watertown  in 
August,  1632,  "because  it  would 
not  grind  but  with  a  westerly  wind." 
On  the  map  of  Boston,  printed  in 
1722,  it  is  called  Snow  Hill  About 
the  time  of  the  Revolution,  in  1775, 
it  bore  the  name,  which  it  still  re- 
tains, of  Copp's  Hill,  after  William 
Copp,  the  earliest  proprietor  of  a 
portion  of  it.  See  Winthrop,  i.  87; 
Snow's  Boston,  p.  105. 


THE    TREMONT. 


399 


mountain,*  with  three  little  rising  hills  on  the  top  of  chap. 
It  :  wherefore  it  is  called  • 


1633. 


THE    TRAMOUNT. 


From  the  top  of  this  mountain  a  man  may  overlook 
all  the  islands  which  lie  before  the  bay,  and  descry 
such  ships  as  are  upon  the  sea-coast.  This  town, 
although  it  be  neither  the  greatest  nor  the  richest, 
yet  it  is  the  most  noted  and  frequented,  being  the 
centre  of  the  plantations,  where  the  monthly  Courts 
are  kept.^  Here  likewise  dwells  the  Governor. 
This  place  hath  very  good  land,  affording  rich  corn- 
fields and  fruitful  gardens  ;  havmg  likewise  sweet 
and  pleasant  springs.^ 


'  The  top  of  this  beautiful  hill, 
which  was  in  the  rear  of  the  State 
House,  was  138  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  sea.  With  its  two  adjoining 
eminences  it  occupied  about  100 
acres  of  ground.  I'he  easternmost 
hiU  was  where  Pemberton  Square 
now  stands,  and  the  westernmost 
occupied  what  is  now  called  JMouut 
Vernon,  near  Louisburgh  Square. 
The  central  elevation  received  the 
name  of  Sentry  and  afterwards  Bea- 
con Hill,  from  the  beacon  which 
was  placed  on  its  summit  to  alarm 
the  country  in  case  of  invasion,  by 
setting  fire  to  a  tar-barrel  fixed  on 
the  top  of  it.  This  beacon  was 
blown  down  by  the  wind  in  Nov. 
1789.  The  wood-cut  represents 
the    three   hills  as   they   appeared 


when  seen  from  Charlestown.  See 
p.  313  ;  Snow's  Boston,  pp.  65,  112, 
315  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  iii.  2U. 

^  At  a  Court  tield  Oct.  3,  1632, 
"  it  is  thought,  by  general  consent, 
that  Boston  is  the  fittest  place  for 
puljrlic  meetings  of  any  place  in  the 
Bay."  It  is  still  thought  so,  and 
probably  always  will  be. 

^  "  Boston,"  says  Johnson,  writ- 
ing in  1652,  "is  the  centre  town 
and  metropolis  of  this  wilderness 
work.  Environed  it  is  with  the 
brinish  floods,  savinar  one  small  isth- 
mus, which  gives  free  access  to  the 
neighbour  towns  by  land  on  the 
south  side.  On  the  north-west  and 
north-east  two  constant  ferries  are 
kept  for  daily  traffic  thereunto.  The 
form  of  this  town  is  like  a  heart, 


400 


BROOKLI-XE    AND    CHARLESTOWN. 


1633 


The  inhabitants  of  this  place,  for  their  enlarge- 
ment, have  taken  to  themselves  farm-houses  in  a 
place  called  Muddy-river,^  two  miles  from  their 
town  ;-  where  is  good  ground,  large  timber,  and 
store  of  marsh  land  and  meadow.  In  this  place  they 
keep  their  swine  and  other  cattle  in  the  summer, 
whilst  the  corn  is  on  the  ground  at  Boston,  and  bring 
them  to  the  town  in  winter. 

On  the  north  side  of  Charles  river  is  Charles  Towne,^ 


naturally  situated  for  fortifications, 
having  two  hills  on  the  frontice-part 
thereof  next  the  sea  ;  the  one  well 
fortified  on  the  superficies  thereof 
with  store  of  great  artillery,  well 
mounted.  The  other  hath  a  very 
strong  battery,  built  of  whole  tim- 
ber, and  filled  with  earth,  at  the  de- 
scent of  the  hill,  in  the  extreme 
point  thereof.  Betwixt  these  two 
strong  arms  lies  a  large  cove  or  bay, 
in  wluch  the  chiefest  part  of  this 
town  is  built,  overtopped  with  a 
third  hill.  All  three,  like  overtop- 
ping towers,  keep  a  constant  watch 
to  foresee  the  approach  of  foreign 
dangers,  being  furnished  wi  h  a 
beacon  and  loud-babbling  guns,  to 
give  notice,  by  their  redoubled  echo, 
to  all  their  sister  towns.  The  chief 
edifices  of  this  city-like  town  are 
crowded  on  the  sea-banks,  and 
wharfed  out  w^ith  great  industry  and 
cost ;  the  buildings  beautiful  and 
large,  some  fairly  set  forth  with 
brick,  tile,  stone,  and  slate,  and  or- 
derly placed,  with  comely  streets, 
whose  continual  enlargement  presag- 
eth  some  sumftuoiis  city.  The  won- 
der of  this  modern  age,  that  a  few 
years  should  bring  forth  such  great 
matters  by  so  mean  a  liandful  ;  and 
they  so  far  from  being  enriched  by 
the  spoils  of  other  nations,  that  the 
states  of  many  of  them  have  been 
spoiled  by  the  lordly  prelacy,  whose 
lands  must  assuredly  make  restitu- 
tion. At  this  people's  landing,  the 
hideous  thickets  in  this  place  were 
such,  that  wolves  and  bears   nursed 


up  their  young  from  the  eyes  of  all 
beholders,  in  those  very  places  where 
the  streets  are  full  of  girls  and  boys, 
sporting  up  and  down,  with  a  contin- 
ued concourse  of  people .  Good  store 
of  shipping  is  here  yearly  built,  and 
some  very  fair  ones.  Both  tar  and 
masts  the  country  affords  from  its 
own  soil ;  also  store  of  victual  both 
for  their  own  and  foreigners'  ships, 
who  resort  hither  for  that  end.  This 
town  is  the  very  mart  of  the  land. 
French,  Portugals,  and  Dutch  come 
hither  for  traffic."  Johnson's  Hist. 
N.  E.,  ch.  20.     Seep.  313. 

'  This  place  continued  to  be  call- 
ed Muddy-river  and  Muddy-river 
Hamlet,  till  Nov.  24,  1705,  when 
it  was  incorporated  as  a  distinct 
town,  by  the  name  of  Brookline. 
See  Winthrop,  i.  88,  290  ;  Dr. 
Pierce's  Hist,  of  Brookline,  m  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.  xii.  145. 

^  That  is,  in  a  direct  line  across 
the  water,  over  which  they  used  to 
pass  in  boats  when  they  went  to 
their  farms.  The  Rev.  John  Cot- 
ton, of  Boston,  had  a  farm  here.  It 
included  the  two  estates  now  owned 
by  John  Kenrick  and  Moses  Andem. 
See  Dr.  Pierce's  Address  at  Brook- 
line, Oct.  14,  1845,  p.  17. 

^  "This  town  of  Charles,"  says 
Johnson  in  1652,  "  is  situated  on  the 
north  side  of  Charles  river,  from 
whence  it  took  its  name,  the  river 
being  about  five  or  six  fathoms  deep  ; 
over  against  the  town  many  small 
islands  lying  to  the  seaward  of  it, 
and  hills  on  either  side.     By  which 


CHARLESTOWN. 


401 


which  is  another  neck  of  land,  on  whose  north  side  chap. 


runs  Misticke  river.  This  town,  for  all  things,  may 
be  well  paralleled  with  her  neighbour  Boston,  being 
in  the  same  fashion  with  her  bare  neck,  and  con- 
strained to  borrow  conveniences  from  the  main,  and 
to  provide  for  themselves  farms  in  the  country  for 
their  better  subsistence.  At  this  town  there  is  kept 
a  ferry-boat  ^  to  convey  passengers  over  Charles  riv- 
er ;  which,  between  the  two  towns,  is  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  over,  being  a  very  deep  channel.  Here  may 
ride  forty  ships  at  a  time. 

Up  higher  it  is  a  broad  bay,~  being  above  two 
miles  between  the  shores,  into  which  runs  Stony 
river  and  Muddy  river. ^  Towards  the  south-west, 
in  the  middle  of  this  bay,^  is  a  great  oyster  bank.'' 

Towards  the  north-west  of  this  bay  is  a  great 
creek,  upon  whose  shore  is  situated  the  village  of 


1633. 


means  it  proves  a  very  good  harbour 
for  ships  ;  which  hath  caused  many 
seamen  and  merchants  to  sit  down 
there.  The  form  of  this  town,  in 
the  frontice-piece  thereof,  is  Hke  the 
head,  neck,  and  shoulders  of  a  man. 
Only  the  pleasant  and  navigable 
river  of  Mistick  runs  through  the 
right  shoulder  thereof,  and  by  its 
near  approach  to  Charles  river  in 
one  place,  makes  a  very  narrow 
neck ;  by  which  means  the  chief 
part  of  the  town,  whereon  the  most 
buildings  stand,  becomes  a  penin- 
sula. It  hath  a  large  market-place, 
near  the  water  side,  built  round 
with  houses  comely  and  fair  ;  forth 
of  which  there  issue  two  streets, 
orderly  built,  with  some  very  fair 
houses,  beautified  with  pleasant 
gardens  and  orchards.  The  whole 
town  consists,  in  its  extent,  of  about 
150  houses.  Their  meeting-house 
for  Sabbath  assembly  stands  in  the 
market-place,  very  comely  built 
and  large.     The   number  of  souls, 

26 


(church  members)  is  about  160. 
Their  corn  land  in  tillage  in  this 
town  is  about  1200  acres ;  their 
great  cattle  are  about  400  head  ; 
sheep  near  upon  400."  Johnson's 
N.  E.,  ch.  18. 

*  By  an  order  of  the  Court  of  As- 
sistants, June  14,  1631,  Edward 
Converse  was  permitted  "  to  set  up 
a  ferry  between  Charlton  and  Bos- 
ton, for  which  he  is  to  have  2d.  for 
every  single  person,  and  Id.  apiece 
if  there  be  two  or  more."  See  Col. 
Rec. ;  and  Frothingham's  Charles- 
town,  p.  94. 

*  The  Back  Bay,  as  it  is  called, 
west  of  the  Common,  across  which 
runs  the  Mill-dam  road,  or  Western 
Avenue. 

^  Muddy  river  is  the  boundary 
between  Roxbury  and  Brookline. 

*  "Aug.  6,  1633.  Two  men, 
servants  to  one  Moody,  of  Roxbury, 
returning  in  a  boat  from  the  wind- 
mill, (on  Copp's  Hill,)  struck  upon 
the  oyster  bank."  Winthrop,  i.  106. 


402  CAMBRIDGE. 

CHAP.  Medford,'^  a  very  fertile  and  pleasant  place,   and  fit 

^'  for  more  inhabitants  than  are  yet  in  it.     This  town 

1^23.  is  a  mile  and  a  half  from  Charlestown  ;  and  at  the 
bottom  of  this  bay  the  river  begins  to  be  narrower, 
being  but  half  a  quarter  of  a  mile  broad. 

By  the  side  of  this  river  is  built  Newtown,  which  is 
three  miles  by  land  from  Charlestown,  and  a  league 
and  a  half  by  water.  This  place  was  first  intended 
for  a  city  ;-  but,  upon  more  serious  considerations,  it 
was  not  thought  so  fit,  being  too  far  from  the  sea, 
being  the  greatest  inconvenience  it  hath.  This  is  one 
of  the  neatest  and  best  compacted  towns  in  New^-Eng- 
land,  having  many  fair  structures,  with  many  hand- 
some contrived  streets.  The  inhabitants,  most  of 
them,  are  very  rich,  and  well  stored  with  cattle  of 
all  sorts,  having  many  hundred  acres  of  ground  paled 
in  with  one  general  fence,  which  is  about  a  mile  and 
a  half  long,  which  secures  all  their  weaker  cattle 
from  the  wild  beasts.  On  the  other  side  of  the  river 
lieth  all  their  meadow  and  marsh  ground  for  hay.^ 

^  "  Medford  and  Mistick  were  among  the  Indians,  than  hazard  the 
then  distinct  places,  though  not  so  fury  of  malignant  adversaries,  who 
at  present.  Medford  I  take  to  have  in  a  rage  might  pursue  them ;  and 
been  a  small  village  at  the  lower  therefore  chose  a  place,  situate  on 
part  of  Mistick  river,  now  called  Charles  river,  between  Charlestown 
Neck  of  Land,  where  a  creek  also  and  Watertown,  where  they  erected 
ran  into  Charles  river."  Hutchin-  a  town,  called  Newtown,  now  nam- 
son's  Mass.  i.  22.  See  Winthrop,  ed  Cambridge.  This  town  is  com- 
i.  69.  pact  closely  within  itself,  till  of  late 
*  See  pages  320  and  339.  years  some  few  straggling  houses 
^  "  At  this  time  those  who  were  have  been  built.  The  liberties  of 
in  place  of  civil  government,  having  this  town  have  been  enlarged  of  late 
some  additional  pillars  to  underprop  in  length,  reaching  from  the  most 
the  building,  began  to  think  of  a  northerly  part  of  Charles  river  to  the 
place  of  more  safety,  in  the  eyes  of  most  southerly  part  of  Mystick  river, 
man,  than  the  two  frontier  towns  It  hath  well-ordered  streets,  and 
of  Charlestown  and  Boston  were  comely,  completed  with  the  fair 
foi  the  habitation  of  such  as  the  building  of  Harvard  College.  Their 
Lord  had  prepared  to  govern  this  first  pastor  was  the  faithful  and  la- 
Pilgrim  people.  Wherefore  they  l)orious  Mr.  Hooker.  The  people 
rather  made  choice  to  enter  farther  of  this  town   are  at  this  day  in  a 


WATEHTOWN. 


403 


Half  a  mile  westward  of  this  plantation,  is  Water-  chap. 

towne,  a  place  nothing  inferior  for  land,  wood,  mea-  

dow,  and  water,  to  New-towne.  Within  half  a  mile  ^^^^• 
of  this  town  is  a  great  pond,^  which  is  divided  be- 
tween those  two  towns,  which  divides  their  bounds 
northward.  A  mile  and  a  half  from  this  town  is  a 
fall  of  fresh  waters,^  which  convey  themselves  into 
the  ocean  through  Charles  river.  A  little  below  this 
fall  of  waters,  the  inhabitants  of  Water-to wne  have 
built  a  wear  to  catch  fish,  wherein  they  take  great 
store  of  shads  and  alewives.  In  two  tides  they  have 
gotten  one  hundred  thousand  of  those  fishes.  This 
is  no  small  benefit  to  the  plantation.^     Ships  of  small 


thriving  condition  in  outward  things ; 
also  both  corn  and  cattle,  neat  and 
sheep,  of  which  they  have  a  good 
flock,  which  the  Lord  hath  caused 
to  thrive  much  more  in  these  latter 
days  than  formerly.  This  town  was 
appointed  to  be  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment ;  but  it  continued  not  long. 
This  year  (1633)  a  small  glean  of 
rye  was  brought  to  the  Court  as  the 
first  fruits  of  English  grain ;  at 
which  this  poor  people  greatly  re- 
joiced to  see  the  land  would  bear  it. 
But  now  the  Lord's  blessing  that 
way  hath  exceeded  all  people's  ex- 
pectation, clothing  the  earth  with 
plenty  of  all  kinds  of  grain."  John- 
son, chap.  28.  An  excellent  histo- 
ry of  Cambridge,  written  by  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Holmes,  the  accurate  au- 
thor of  the  Annals  of  America,  is 
contained  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  vii. 
1-67.  A  more  enlarged  history  of 
the  town,  prepared  with  indefatiga- 
ble labor  and  research,  is  soon  ex- 
pected from  the  pen  of  the  Rev. 
Lucius  R.  Paige,  of  Cambridge. 

'  Fresh  Pond,  from  which  most 
of  the  ice  is  obtained  that  is  export- 
ed from  Boston. 

^  From  Wood's  description,  it 
would  appear  that  the  original  set- 
tlement at  Watertown  was  in  a  very 


different  spot  from  the  present  vil- 
lage. Winthrop,  too,  says  that  "a 
wear  was  erected  by  Watertown 
men  upon  Charles  river,  three  miles 
above  the  toivn,  where  they  took 
gi-eat  store  of  shads."  Winthrop, 
i.  73. 

^  "Watertown,"  says  Johnson, 
"  is  situate  upon  one  of  the  branches 
of  Charles  river,  a  fruitful  plot,  and 
of  large  extent,  watered  with  many 
pleasant  springs  and  small  rivulets, 
running  like  veins  throughout  her 
body  ;  which  hath  caused  her  inhab- 
itants to  scatter  in  such  manner, 
that  their  Sabbath  assemblies  prove 
very  thin,  if  the  season  favor  not, 
and  hath  made  this  great  town,  con- 
sisting of  160  families,  to  show  no- 
thing delightful  to  the  eye  in  any 
place.  This  town  began  by  occa- 
sion of  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  who, 
at  his  arrival,  having  some  store  of 
cattle  and  servants,  they  wintered  in 
those  parts.  This  town  abounds  in 
several  sorts  of  fish  at  their  seasons, 
bass,  shad,  alewives,  frost-fish,  and 
smelts.  Their  herd  of  kine,  and 
cattle  of  that  kind,  are  about  450, 
with  some  store  of  sheep  and  goats. 
Their  land  in  tillage  is  near  upon 
1800  acres.  This  church  is  increas- 
ed to  near  about  250  souls  in  church 


404 


MEDFORD    AND    CHELSEA. 


^xxf'  burthen  may  come  up  to   these  two  towns  ;  but  the 
oyster  banks  ^  do  bar  out  the  bigger  ships. 

The  next  town  is  Misticke,"  which  is  three  miles 
from  Charles-towne  by  land,  and  a  league  and  a  half 
by  water.  It  is  seated  by  the  water's  side  very 
pleasantly  ;  there  be  not  many  houses  as  yet.  At 
the  head  of  this  river  are  great  and  spacious  ponds,^ 
whither  the  alewives  press  to  spawn.  This  being  a 
noted  place  for  that  kind  of  fish,  the  English  resort 
thither  to  take  them.  On  the  west  side  of  this  river 
the  Governor  hath  a  farm, ^  where  he  keeps  most  of  his 
cattle.  On  the  east  side  is  Master  Cradock's  planta- 
tion, where  he  hath  impaled  a  park,  where  he  keeps 
his  cattle,  till  he  can  store  it  Avith  deer.  Here  like- 
wise he  is  at  charges  of  building  ships.  The  last 
year  one  w^as  upon  the  stocks  of  a  hundred  ton.^ 
That  being  finished,  they  are  to  build  one  twice  her 
burthen.  Ships,  without  either  ballast  or  loading, 
may  float  down  this  river.  Otherwise,  the  oyster 
bank  would  hinder  them,  which  crosseth  the  channel. 
The  last  town  in  the  still  bay  is  Winnisimet,^  a 
very  sweet  place  for  situation,  and  stands  very  corn- 


fellowship.  Their  first  pastor  was  Mystick  river.  Medford  continued  a 
Mr.  Phillips,  a  man  mighty  in  the  manor  or  plantation  till  Oct.  15, 
Scriptures,  and  very  diligent  to  1683,  when  it  was  made  a  separate 
search  out  the  mind  of  Christ  there-  town.  See  pages  313  and  374; 
in  contained."  Johnson's  Hist,  of  Savage's  Winthrop,  ii.  161  ;  Froth- 
New-England,  ch.  23.  An  excel-  ingham's  Charlestown,  pp.  89-93. 
lent  History  of  Watertown,  in  151  ^  Mystick,  Horn,  and  Spy  Ponds, 
pages  octavo,  was  published  in  1830,  *  Governor  Winthrop's  farm  on 
written  by  the  Rev.  Convers  Fran-  the  banks  of  the  Mystick  was  called 
cis,  formerly  minister  of  the  town,  Tenhills,  which  name  is  still  retain- 
and  now  a  professor  in  the  Divinity  ed.  See  note  ^  on  page  104. 
School  at  Cambridge.  ^  See  note  '  on  page  185. 

'  See  page  401.  *  Chelsea.     A  flourishing  village 

-  Mistick  is  now  Medford.  Itwa.s  in  this  town,  connected  with  Boston 

originally   the    name   of  Cradock's  by  a  steam-ferry,  retains  the  ancient 

farm  or  plantation,  containing  about  name  of  Winnisimet. 
2500   acres,    on   the   north   side  of 


1633. 


THE    ISLANDS    IN    BOSTON    HARBOUR.  405 

modiously,  being  fit  to  entertain  more  planters  than  chap. 
are  yet  seated.     It  is  within  a  mile  of  Charlestown, 
the  river  ^  only  parting  them. 

The  chief  islands  which  keep  out  the  wind  and 
the  sea  from  disturbing  the  harbours  are,  first,  Deer 
Island, ■"  which  lies  within  a  flight-shot  of  Pullin-point. 
This  island  is  so  called  because  of  the  deer,  which 
often  swam  thither  from  the  main,  when  they  are 
chased  by  the  wolves  ;  some  have  killed  sixteen 
deer  in  a  day  upon  this  island.  The  opposite  shore 
is  called  Pullin-point,  because  that  is  the  usual  chan- 
nel boats  use  to  pass  through  into  the  bay  ;  and  the 
tide  being  very  strong,  they  are  constrained  to  go 
ashore,  and  haul  their  boats  by  the  seaside,  or  roads ; 
whereupon  it  was  called  Pullin-point.^ 

The  next  island  of  note  is  Long  Island,  so  called 
from  his  longitude.  Divers  other  islands  be  within 
these,  viz.  Nodle's  Isle,  Round  Isle,  the  Governor's 
Garden,  where  is  planted  an  orchard,  and  a  vineyard, 
wdth  many  other  conveniences,  and  Slate  Island, 
Glass  Island,  Bird  Island,  &-c.^  These  isles  abound 
with  woods,  and  water,  and  meadow  ground,  and 
whatsoever  the  spacious  fertile  main  affords.  The 
inhabitants  use  to  put  their  cattle  in  these  for  safety, 
viz.  their  rams,  goats,  and  swine,  when  their  corn  is 
on  the  ground.     Those  towns   that  lie  without   the 


*  Mystick.  bly  Apple  Island.     The  Governor's 
^  Deer  island,  lying  between  Point  Garden  is  the  island  on  which  Fort 

Shirley  and  Lovell's  Island,  keeps  Warren  is  built.     Slate  Island  is  off 

its  original  name.  Crow  Point,    in   Hinghara.     Grass 

^  It  is  now  called  Point  Shirley.  Island  (Glass  probably  an  error.)  is 

SeeWinthrop,i.  90;  Prince,  p.  403;  off  Weymouth.     Bird    island   was 

Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  iii.  299.  between  Noddle's  and  Governor's. 

*  Long  island  still  retains  its  an-  Its   soil  is  washed   away,  but  it  is 
cient  name.     Noddle's  island  is  now  drv  at  low  water. 


East  Boston.     Round  Isle  is  proba- 


406  LYNN    AND    NAHANT. 

CHAP,  bay,   are  a  great  deal  nearer  the  main,  and  reap  a 

greater  benefit   from  the  sea,  in  regard  of  the  plenty 

1633.  \yQ^]^  Qf  f][g}j  and  fowl  which  they  receive  from 
thence ;  so  that  they  live  more  comfortably,  and  at 
less  charges,  than  those  that  are  more  remote  from 
the  sea,  in  the  inland  plantations. 

The  next  plantation  is  Saugus,  six  miles  north-east 
from  Winnesimet.  This  town  is  pleasant  for  situa- 
tion, seated  at  the  bottom  of  a  bay,  which  is  made 
on  the  one  side  with  the  surrounding  shore,  and 
on  the  other  side  with  a  long  sandy  beach.  This 
sandy  beach  is  two  miles  long,  at  the  end  whereon  is 
a  neck  of  land,  called  Nahant}  It  is  six  miles  in 
circumference,  well  wooded  with  oaks,  pines,  and 
cedars.  It  is,  besides,  well  watered,  having,  besides 
the  fresh  springs,  a  great  pond^  in  the  middle  ;  be- 
fore which  is  a  spacious  marsh.  In  this  neck  is  store 
of  good  ground,  fit  for  the  plough  ;  but  for  the  pre- 
sent it  is  only  used  for  to  put  young  cattle  in,  and 
wether -goats,  and  swine,  to  secure  them  from  the 
wolves.  A  few  posts  and  rails  from  the  low-water 
marks  to  the  shore  keeps  out  the  wolves,  and  keeps 
in  the  cattle.  One  Black  William,^  an  Indian  duke, 
out  of  his  generosity,  gave  this  place  in  general  to 
this  plantation  of  Saugus  ;  so  that  no  other  can  ap- 
propriate it  to  himself. 

Upon  the  south'*  side  of  the  sandy  beach  the  sea 
beateth,  which  is  a  true  prognostication  to  presage 

'  Sec  Lewis's  History  of  Lynn,  murder  of  Walter  Bagnall.  He  was, 

(2(1  ed.)  pp.  21-27.  probably,  however,  a  different  per- 

'^  This  is  called  Bear  Pond.     See  son  from  the  Duke  of  Saugus.    See 

Lewis's  Lynn,  p.  29.  Winthrop,  i.  02,  99;  Lewis's  Lynn, 

^  An  Indian,  called   Black  Will,  p.  51. 
was    hung   at   Richmond's   Isle   in         •*  More  properly  on  the  east  side. 
J632,   for   being   concerned   in   the 


1633, 


RUMNY    MARSH.  407 

Storms  and  foul  weather,  and  the  breaking  up  of  the  <^'gAP. 

frost.     For  when  a  storm  hath  been,  or  is  likely  to 

be,  it  will  roar  like  thunder,  being  heard  six  miles  ; 
and  after  storms,  casts  up  great  store  of  great  clams, 
which  the  Indians,  taking  out  of  their  shells,  carry 
home  in  baskets. 

On  the  north  side  of  this  bay  is  two  great  marshes, 
which  are  made  two  by  a  pleasant  river  ^  which  runs 
between  them.  Northward,  up  this  river,  goes 
great  store  of  alewives,  of  which  they  make  good  red 
herrings  ;  insomuch  that  they  have  been  at  charges 
to  make  a  wear,  and  a  herring-house  to  dry  these 
herrings  in.  The  last  year  were  dried  some  four  or 
five  last,^  for  an  experiment ;  which  proved  very 
good.  This  is  like  to  prove  a  great  enrichment  to 
the  land,  (being  a  staple  commodity  in  other  coun- 
tries,) for  there  be  such  innumerable  companies  in 
every  river,  that  I  have  seen  ten  thousand  taken  in 
two  hours  by  two  men,  without  any  wear  at  all,  sav- 
ing a  few  stones  to  stop  their  passage  up  the  river. 
There  likewise  come  store  of  bass,  which  the  Indians 
and  English  catch  with  hook  and  line,  some  fifty  or 
threescore  at  a  tide. 

At  the  mouth  of  this  river  runs  up  a  great  creek^ 
into  that  great  marsh,  which  is  called  Rumny  Marsh  ;^ 
which  is  four  miles  long  and  two  miles  broad,  half  of 
it  being  marsh  ground,  and  half  upland  grass,  with- 
out tree  or  bush.  This  marsh  is  crossed  with  divers 
creeks,  wherein  lie  great  store  of  geese  and  ducks. 

'  Saugus  or  Abousett  river.    See  ^  Now  called  Chelsea  Creek, 

page  169.  ■*  In  Chelsea.     There  is  said  to 

*  A  last  of  white   herrings  is  12  be  a  place  of  the  same  name  in  the 

barrels ;  of  red  herring-s,  20  cades,  County    of  Kent,    England.     See 

or  20,000.     See  Richardson's  Die-  Am.  Antiq.  Soc.  Trans,  ii.  441. 
tionary. 


408  LYNN. 

CHAP.  There  be  convenient  ponds  for  the  planting  of  duck- 

> ^  oys.     Here  is    likewise,    belonging    to    this   place, ^ 

1633.  divers  fresh  meadows,  which  afford  good  grass,  and 
four  spacious  ponds, ~  like  little  lakes,  wherein  is 
store  of  fresh  fish,  within  a  mile  of  the  town  ;  out  of 
which  runs  a  curious  fresh  brook,^  that  is  seldom 
frozen,  by  reason  of  the  warmness  of  the  water. 
Upon  this  stream  is  built  a  water-mill,  and  up  this 
river  come  smelts  and  frost-fish,  much  bigger  than  a 
gudgeon.  For  wood,  there  is  no  want,  there  being 
store  of  good  oaks,  walnut,  cedar,  asp,  elm.  The 
ground  is  very  good,  in  many  places  without  trees, 
fit  for  the  plough.  In  this  plantation  is  more  Eng- 
lish tillage  than  in  all  New-England  and  Virginia 
besides  ;  which  proved  as  well  as  could  be  expect- 
ed, the  corn  being  very  good,  especially  the  barley, 
rye,  and  oats. 

The  land  affordeth  the  inhabitants  as  many  rarities 
as  any  place  else,  and  the  sea  more  ;  the  bass  con- 
tinuing from  the  middle  of  April  to  Michaelmas, 
which  stays  not  above  half  that  time  in  the  bay. 
Besides,  here  is  a  great  deal  of  rock-cod  and  mack- 
erel, insomuch  that  shoals  of  bass  have  driven  up 
shoals  of  mackerel  from  one  end  of  the  sandy  beach 
to  the  other,  which  the  inhabitants  have  gathered  up 
in  wheelbarrows.  The  bay  that  lieth  before  the 
town,  at  a  low  spring  tide,  will  be  all  flats  for  two 
miles  together ;  upon  which  is  great  store  of  muscle- 
banks  and  clam-banks,  and  lobsters  amongst  the 
rocks  and  grassy  holes.     These  flats  make  it  unnavi- 

'  Tliut  is,  Saug-us,  or  Lynn.  ^  The  name  of  it  is   Strawberry 
*  Theirnames  are  Flax,  Tomline,  Brook.     It  conects  the  three  first- 
Cedar,   and   Spring.     See  Lewis's  named    ponds    with   Saug-us    river. 
Lynn,  p.  29.  See  Lewis's  Lynn,  pp.  20,  29,  84. 


SALEM.  409 

gable  for  ships.     Yet,  at  high  water,   great  boats,  chap. 
lighters,  and  pinnaces  of  twenty  and  thirty  ton,  may  -^~ 
sail  up  to  the  plantation ;  but  they  need  have  a  skil-  1633. 
ful  pilot,  because  of  many  dangerous  rocks  and  foam- 
ing breakers,  that  lie  at  the  mouth  of  that  bay.    The 
very  aspect  of  the  place  is  fortification  enough  to 
keep  off  an  unknown  enemy.     Yet  may  it  be  fortified 
at  a  little  charge,  being  but  few  landing  places  there- 
about, and  those  obscure.^ 

Four  miles  north-east  from  Saugus,  lieth  Salem, 
which  stands  on  the  middle  of  a  neck  of  land  very 
pleasantly,  having  a  South  river  on  the  one  side,  and 
a  North  river  on  the  other  side.  Upon  this  neck, 
where  the  most  of  the  houses  stand,  is  very  bad  and 
sandy  ground.  Yet,  for  seven  years  together,  it 
hath  brought  forth  exceeding  good  corn,  by  being 
fished  but  every  third  year.  In  some  places  is  very 
good  ground,  and  very  good  timber,  and  divers 
springs,  hard  by  the  sea-side.  Here,  likewise,  is 
store  of  fish,  as  basses,  eels,  lobsters,  clams,  &c. 
Although  their  land  be  none  of  the  best,  yet  beyond 
those  rivers  is   a  very  good  soil,  where  they  have 

'  "  Lynn,"    says   Johnson,    "  is  fore  made   with   steps    descending 

between    Salem   and   Charlestown.  into   the   earth.     Their  streets  are 

Her   situation    is   near  to   a  river,  straight  and  comely,  yet  but  thin  of 

whose   strong   freshet,  at  breaking  houses.     The  people  mostly  inclin- 

up  of  winter,  filleth  all  her  banks,  ing  to  husbandry,  have  built  many 

and  with  a  furious  torrent  vents  it-  farms  remote  there ;  cattle  exceed- 

self  into  the  sea.    This  town  is  fur-  ingly  multiplied  ;  goats,  which  were 

nished  with  minerals  of  divers  kinds,  in  great  esteem  at  their  first  coming, 

especially  iron  and  lead.     The  form  are  now  almost  quite  banished  ;  and 

of  it  is  almost  square  ;  only  it  takes  now   horse,    kine,   and   sheep,   are 

too  large  a  run  into  the  land-ward,  most   in  request  with  them.     The 

as  most  towns  do.     It  is  filled  with  first   feeder  of  this  flock  of  Christ 

about    100    houses    for    dwelling,  was   Mr.  Stephen   Batchelor,  gray 

Here  is  also  an  iron  mill  in  constant  and  aged."    Johnson's  Hist.  N.  E., 

use  ;  but  as  for  lead,  they  have  tried  ch.  22.  There  is  a  History  of  Lynn, 

but  little  yet.    Their  meeting-house  including  Nahant,  by  Alonzo  Lewis, 

is  on  a  level  land,  undefended  from  in  octavo,  278  pages,   2d  ed.,  1844. 
the  cold  north-west  wind ,  and  there- 


410  MARBLEHEAD    AND    IPSWICH. 

CHAP,  taken  farms,  and  get  their  hay,  and  plant  their  corn. 

There  they  cross   these  rivers  with  small    canoes, 

1633.  -which  are  made  of  whole  pine  trees,  being  about  two 
foot  and  a  half  over,  and  twenty  foot  long.  In  these 
likewise  they  go  a  fowling,  sometimes  two  leagues  to 
sea.  There  be  more  canoes  in  this  town,  than  in  all 
the  whole  Patent ;  every  household  having  a  water- 
house  or  two.  This  town  wants  an  alewife  river, 
which  is  a  great  inconvenience.  It  hath  two  good 
harbours,  the  one  being  called  Winter,  and  the 
other  Summer  harbour,^  which  lieth  within  Derby's 
fort  f  w^hich  place,  if  it  were  well  fortified,  might 
keep  ships  from  landing  of  forces  in  any  of  those  two 
places. 

Marvill  Head^  is  a  place  which  lieth  four  miles  full 
south  from  Salem,  and  is  a  very  convenient  place  for 
a  plantation,  especially  for  such  as  will  set  upon  the 
trade  of  fishing.  There  was  made  here  a  ship's 
loading  of  fish  the  last  year,  where  still  stand  the 
stages  and  drying  scaftblds.  Here  be  good  harbour 
for  boats,  and  safe  riding  for  ships. 

Agoivamme^  is  nine  miles  to  the  north  from  Salem, 


'  Winter  harbour  is   now  called  twenty  miles  farther  up  in  the  coim- 

Cat  Cove ;  and   Summer  harbour  is  try,   issuingr  forth   a  very  pleasant 

the  principal  harbour  of  Salem.    See  pond.     But  soon  after  it  betakes  its 

Felt,  i.  231,  241.  course    through    a    most     hideous 

^  This  fort  was  probably  built  on  swamp  of  large    extent,  even    for 

Naugus'  Head,  on  Marblehead  side,  many  miles,  being  a  great  harbour 

It  may  have  got  its  name  from  Wil-  for  bears.     After  its   coming  forth 

liam  Darby,  one  of  the  Company  in  this  place,  it  groweth  larger  by  the 

London,  who  in   May,   1C28,   sub-  income  of  many  small  rivers,   and 

scribed  jG50  to  the  joint  stock.  See  issues  forth  in  the  sea,  due  east  over 

p.  174,  and  Felt,  i.  Ill,  205.  against  the  Island  of  S holes,  a  great 

^  See  note  *  on  page  244.  place  of  fishing  for  our  English  na- 

4  By  order  of  Court,  Aug.  4,  tion.  The  peopling  of  this  town  is 
1634,  called  Ipswich.  "  This  town,"  by  men  of  good  rank  and  quality, 
says  Johnson,  "  is  situated  on  a  fair  many  of  them  having  the  yearly  re- 
and  delightful  river,  whose  first  venue  of  large  lands  in  England  he- 
rise  or  spring  begins  about  five  and  fore  they  came  to  this  wilderness. 


MERRIMACK    RIVER. 


411 


which  is  one  of  the  most  spacious  places  for  a  plant-  chap. 

XX 

ation.     Being  near   the  sea,  it  aboimdeth  with  fish,  ^ -i- 

and   flesh   of    fowls   and  beasts,    great    meads    and  16  3  3. 
marshes   and  plain  ploughing  grounds,   many  good 
rivers  and  harbours,  and  no  rattlesnakes. 

In  a  word,  it  is  the  best  place  but  one,  which  is 
Merrimacke,^  lying  eight  miles  beyond  it,  where  is  a 
river  twenty  leagues  navigable.  All  along  the  river 
side  is  fresh  marshes,  in  some  places  three  miles 
broad.  In  this  river  is  sturgeon,  salmon,  and  bass, 
and  divers  other  kinds  of  fish.     To  conclude,  the 


This  town  lies  in  the  sagamoreship 
or  earldom  of  Agawam,  now  by  our 
English  nation  called  Essex.  It  is 
a  very  good  haven  town,  yet  a  little 
barred  up  at  the  mouth  of  the  river. 
Some  merchants  here  are  ;  but  Bos- 
ton being  the  chiefest  place  of  resort 
of  shipping,  carries  away  all  the 
trade.  They  have  very  good  land 
for  husbandry,  where  rocks  hinder 
not  the  course  of  the  plough.  The 
Lord  hath  been  pleased  to  increase 
them  in  corn  and  cattle  of  late,  inso- 
much that  they  have  many  hundred 
quarters  to  spare  yearly,  and  feed, 
at  the  latter  end  of  summer,  the 
town  of  Boston  with  good  beef. 
Their  houses  are  many  of  them  very 
fair  built,  with  pleasant  gardens  and 
orchards,  consisting  of  about  140 
families.  Their  meeting-house  is 
a  very  good  prospect  to  a  gi-eat  part 
of  the  town,  and  beautifully  built. 
The  church  of  Christ  here  consists 
of  about  160  souls."  Johnson's  N. 
E.,  ch.  30.  See  Winthrop,  i.  101, 
133,  137.  A  History  of  this  town, 
written  by  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Felt,  in 
300  pages  octavo,  was  printed  in 
1834. 

'  Merrimack  I  take  to  be  New- 
bury, which  Johnson  thus  describes. 
"  This  town  is  situate  about  twelve 
miles  from  Ipswich,  near  upon  the 
wide  venting  streams  of  Merrimack 
river,  whose  strong  current  is  such 


that  it  hath  forced  its  passage  through 
the  mighty  rocks ;  which  causeth 
some  sudden  falls,  and  hinders  ship- 
ping from  having  any  access  far  into 
the  land.  Her  banks  are  in  many 
places  stored  with  oaken  timber  of 
all  sorts  ;  of  which  that  which  they 
commonly  call  white  oak  is  not  in- 
ferior to  our  English  timber.  In 
this  river  lie  some  few  islands  of 
fertile  land.  This  town  is  stored 
with  meadow  and  upland  ;  which 
hath  caused  some  gentlemen,  (who 
brought  over  good  estates,  and  find- 
ing then  no  better  way  to  improve 
them,)  to  set  upon  husbandry; 
among  whom  that  religious  and  sin- 
cere-hearted servant  of  Christ,  Mr. 
Richard  Dummer,  some  time  a  ma- 
gistrate in  this  little  commonwealth, 
hath  holpen  on  this  town.  Their 
houses  are  built  very  scattering, 
which  hath  caused  some  contending 
about  removal  of  their  place  for  Sab- 
bath assemblies.  Their  cattle  are 
about  400  head,  with  store  of  corn- 
land  in  tillage.  It  consists  of  about 
seventy  families.  The  souls  in 
church  fellowship  are  about  a  hun- 
dred." Johnson's  Hist.  of.  N.  E., 
chap.  31.  See  Chronicles  of  Ply- 
mouth, pp.  402,  403.  A  History  of 
Newbury,  by  Joshua  Coffin,  was 
published  in  1845,  in  octavo,  416 
pages. 


15. 


412  UNREASONABLE    EXPECTATIONS. 

CHAP,  country  hath  not  that  which  this  place  cannot  yield. 

So  that  these  two  places  may  contain  twice  as  many 

1633.  people  as  are  yet  in  New-England,  there  being  as 

yet  scarce    any  inhabitants  in  these    two   spacious 

places.  Three  miles  beyond  the  river  of  Merrimack  is 

the  outside  of  our  patent  for  the  Massachusetts  Bay. 

These  be  all  the  towns  that  were  begun  when  I 

Aug.  came  for  England;  which  was  the  15th  of  August, 
1633. 

I  have  informed  you  of  the  country  in  general,  and 
of  every  plantation  in  particular,  with  their  com- 
modities, and  wherein  one  excelleth  another.  But 
some,  peradventure,  may  say  that  they  have  heard 
that  the  people  have  been  often  driven  to  great  wants 
and  extremities.  To  which  I  answer;  it  is  true  that 
some  have  lived  for  a  certain  time  with  a  little  bread, 
others  without  any.  Yet  all  this  argues  nothing 
against  the  country  in  itself,  but  condemns  the  folly 
and  improvidence  of  such  as  would  venture  into  so 
rude  and  unmanaged  a  country  without  so  much  pro- 
visions as  should  have  comfortably  maintained  them 
in  health  and  strength,  till  by  their  labors  they  had 
brought  the  land  to  yield  his  fruit.  I  have  myself 
heard  some  say,  that  they  heard  it  was  a  rich  land, 
a  brave  country ;  but  when  they  came  there,  they 
could  see  nothing  but  a  few  canvass  booths  and  old 
houses,  supposing  at  the  first  to  have  found  walled 
towns,  fortifications,  and  corn-fields ;  as  if  towns 
could  have  built  themselves,  or  corn-fields  have 
grown  of  themselves,  without  the  husbandry  of  man. 
These  men,  missing  of  their  expectations,  returned 
home  and  railed  against  the  country. 


ALL   NEW-ENGLAND    MUST    WORK.  413 

Others  may  object,  that  of  late  time  there  hath  chap. 
been  great  want.     I  deny  it  not.     But  look  to  the  ^~' 
original,  and  tell  me  from  whence  it  came.     The  i^^^- 
root  of  their  want  sprung  up  in  England.     For  many 
hundreds,  hearing  of  the  plenty  of  the  country,  were 
so  much  their  own   foes   and  country's  hindrance, 
as  to  come  without  provision  ;  which  made  things 
both  dear  and  scant.     Wherefore,  let  none  blame 
the  country,  so  much  as  condemn  the  indiscreetness 
of  such  as  will  needs  run  themselves  upon  hardship. 
And  I  dare  further  assure  any,  that  will  carry  provi- 
sion enough  for  a  year  and  a  half,  shall  not  need  to 
fear  want,  if  he  either  be  industrious  himself,  or  have 
industrious  agents  to  manage  his  estate  and  affairs. 

And  whereas  many  do  disparage  the  land,  saying 
a  man  cannot  live  without  labor  ;  in  that  they  more 
disparage  and  discredit  themselves,  in  giving  the 
world  occasion  to  take  notice  of  their  dronish  dis- 
position, that  would  live  of  the  sweat  of  another 
man's  brows.  Surely  they  were  much  deceived,  or 
else  ill  informed,  that  ventured  thither  in  hope  to 
live  in  plenty  and  idleness,  both  at  a  time  ;  and  it  is 
as  much  pity  that  he  that  can  w^ork  and  will  not, 
should  eat,  as  it  is  pity  that  he  that  would  work  and 
cannot,  should  fast.  I  condemn  not  such,  therefore, 
as  are  now  there,  and  are  not  able  to  work.  But  I 
advise,  for  the  future,  those  men  that  are  of  weak 
constitutions  to  keep  at  home,  if  their  estates  cannot 
maintain  servants.  For  all  New-England  must  be 
workers  in  some  kind.  And  whereas  it  hath  been 
formerly  reported,  that  boys  of  ten  or  twelve  years 
of  age,   might  do  much  more  than  get  their  living,^ 

'  See  page  246. 


414  THE    COUNTRY    FAR    FROM    BEING    POOR. 

CHAP,  that  cannot  be.    For  he  must  have  more  than  a  boy's 

XX. 

—  head,  and  no  less  than  a  man's  strength,  that  intends 
1633.  ^Q  ijyg  comfortably  ;   and  he  that  hath  understanding 
and  industry,  with  a  stock  of  ^£100,  shall  live  better 
there  than  he  shall  do  here  of  <£20  per  annum. 

But  many,  I  know,  will  say,  If  it  be  thus,  how 
comes  it  to  pass  then  that  they  are  so  poor  ?  To 
which  I  answer,  that  they  are  poor  but  in  comparison. 
Compare  them  with  the  rich  merchants  or  great  land- 
ed men  in  England,  and  then  I  know  they  will  seem 
jDoor.  There  is  no  probability  they  should  be  ex- 
ceeding rich,  because  none  of  such  great  estate  went 
over  yet.  Besides,  a  man  of  estate  must  first  scatter 
before  he  gather.  He  must  lay  out  moneys  for  trans- 
porting of  servants  and  cattle  and  goods,  for  houses, 
and  fences  and  gardens,  &c.  This  may  make  his 
purse  seem  light,  and  to  the  eye  of  others  seem  a 
leaking  in  his  estate.  Whereas  these  disbursements 
are  for  his  future  enrichments  ;  for  he  being  once 
well  seated  and  quietly  settled,  his  increase  comes 
in  double.  And  howsoever  they  are  accounted  poor, 
they  are  well  contented,  and  look  not  so  much  at 
abundance  as  a  competency.  So  little  is  the  poverty 
of  the  country,  that  I  am  persuaded  if  many  in  Eng- 
land, which  are  constrained  to  beg  their  bread,  were 
there,  they  would  live  better  than  many  do  here  that 
have  money  to  buy  it. 

Furthermore,  when  corn  is  scarce,  yet  may  they 
have  either  fish  or  flesh  for  their  labor.  And  surely 
that  place  is  not  miserably  poor  to  them  that  are 
there,  where  four  eggs  may  be  had  for  a  penny,  and 
a  quart  of  new  milk  at  the  same  rate  ;  where  butter 
is  six  pence   a  pound,  and  Cheshire  cheese  at   five 


WILLIAIM    WOOD. 


415 


1633, 


pence.     Sure  Middlesex  affords  London  no  better  chap. 

pennyworths.     What  though  there  be  no  such  plenty  

as  to  cry  these  things  in  the  streets  ?  Yet  every  day 
affords  these  pennyworths  to  those  that  need  them 
in  most  places,  I  dare  not  say  in  all.  Can  they  be 
very  poor,  where  for  four  thousand  souls  there  are 
fifteen  hundred  head  of  cattle,  besides  four  thousand 
goats,  and  swine  innumerable  ?  In  an  ill  sheep  year 
I  have  know^n  mutton  as  dear  in  Old  England,  and 
dearer  than  goat's  flesh  is  in  New-England  ;  which 
is  altogether  as  good,  if  fancy  be  set  aside. ^ 


'  Of  W^iLLiAM  Wood,  the  author 
of  the  preceding  very  accurate  topo- 
graphical description  of  Massachu- 
setts, I  can  obtain  no  information. 
He  says  in  the  Preface  to  his  book, 
' '  I  have  laid  down  the  nature  of 
the  country  without  any  partial  re- 
spect unto  it,  as  being  my  dwelling- 
place,  where  I  have  lived  these  four 
years,  and  intend  (God  willing)  to 
return  shortly  again."  Of  course, 
he  must  have  come  over  in  1629, 
probably  with  Higginson.  At  the 
end  of  the  12th  chapter  of  his  first 
part  he  says  that   ' '  the  end  of  his 


travel  was  observation.''^  He  return- 
ed to  England  in  the  ship  Elizabeth 
Bonadventure,  Capt.  Graves,  and 
probably  never  came  back.  I  pre- 
sume he  is  the  person  referred  to  in 
the  following  order  of  the  General 
Court.  "  Sept  3,  1634,  it  is  order- 
ed that  there  shall  be  letters  of 
thankfulness  signed  by  the  Court, 
and  sent  to  the  Countess  of  War- 
wick, Mr.  PajTiter,  Mr.  Wood,  and 
others,  that  have  been  benefactors 
to  this  Plantation."  See  Col.  Rec. 
i.  127,  and  Wmtlirop,  i.  104,  107. 


JOHN  COTTON'S  LIFE  AND  LETTERS. 


27 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

CONCERNING  THE  LIFE  OF  THE  FAMOUS  MR.  COTTON, 
TEACHER  TO  THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST  AT  BOSTON, 
IN    NEW-ENGLAND. 

What  I  have  to  add  concernino;  the  life  of  this  chap. 

...  XXI. 

blessed  man  of  God,  now   triumphing  in  glory,  to  

what  hath  been  already  set  forth  by  the  reverend 
Mr.  Davenport,^  the  worthy  pastor  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  at  New  Haven,  I  shall  hold  forth  in  these 
particulars  ;  first,  concerning  the  place  of  his  birth 
and  education,  till  he  went  to  the  University,  and  his 
abode  in  Cambridge  ;  secondly,  concerning  his  re- 
moval from  Cambridge  to  Boston,  in  Lincolnshire, 
and  what  he  met  with  and  did  there  ;  thirdly,  con- 
cerning his  departure  from  thence  into  New-Eng- 


'  Davenport's    account    is    also  Davenport,  with  many  tears,  bewail- 

mentioned  on  page  51,  and  is  quoted  ed  it  in  a  public  discourse."     Per- 

on  page  32,  of  John  Norton's  Life  haps  it  was  the  manuscript  of  this 

of  Cotton.     Whether   it  was  ever  discourse  that  Whiting  and  Norton 

printed,  I  have  not  been  able  to  as-  saw  and  used.    Richard  Mather  also 

certain.     Dr.  Bacon  does  not  men-  preached  a  funeral    sermon  on  his 

tion  it   in  his   list   of  Davenport's  friend,   which  probably  was  never 

writings.     Cotton  Mather  says,  that  printed.     See  note  ^  on  p.  102  ;  Ma- 

"  when  the  tidings  of  Mr.  Cotton's  ther'sMagnalia,  i.  249  ;  Leonard  Ba- 

decease  reached  New-Haven,  Mr.  con's  Historical  Discourses,  p.  389. 


420  THE    LIFE    OF    JOHN    COTTON. 

CHAP,  land,  and  what  service  the  Lord  made  him  an  instru- 
ment  of  in  that  remote  comitry. 

I.  For  the  first,  the  place  of  his  birth  was  the 
town  of  Derby, ^  the  most  eminent  place  in  that 
country.  His  father^  trained  him  up  to  such  learn- 
ing as  the  school  afforded  for  the  fitting  him  for 
Cambridge  ;  whither  he  went  when  he  was   very 

15  98.  young,  at  thirteen  years  of  age,  and  was  admitted 
into  the  famous  society  of  Trinity  College  ;  where 
he  fell  so  hard  to  his  study,  and  so  profited  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  tongues  and  arts,  that  he  had  un- 
doubtedly been  Fellow  there,  but  that  at  that  time 
their  great  Hall  was  then  in  building,^  which  caused 
such  expenses  to  them  that  the  election  was  put  by, 
or  at  least  deferred,  till  some  longer  time.  And 
this  providence  I  cannot  pass  by  concerning  him, 
that  his  father,  whose  calling  was  to  be  employed  in 
the  study  and  practice  of  the  law,  had  not  many 
clients  that  made  use  of  his  advice  in  law  matters 
before.  It  pleased  God,  after  he  was  gone  to  Cam- 
bridge, to  put  his  father  upon  great  practice,  so  that 
he  was  very  able  to  keep  him  there  and  allow  him 
liberal  maintenance  ;  insomuch  that  the  blessed  man 
said,  "  God  kept  me  at  the  University."  ^ 

'  Derby  is  a  borough  and  market  is  said  to  have  spent  £^3000  in  en- 
town,  the  capital  of  Derbyshire,  126  larging  and  improving  his  College, 
miles  northwest  of  London.  Popu-  To  him  it  is  indebted  for  the  Great 
lation  in  1841,  32,741.  Court,  as  it  is  at  present  ;  and  he 

^  His  father's  Christian  name  was  built  two  sides  of  the  Court,  which, 

Roland,  after  whom  he  called  one  of  after  his  name,  has  since  been  called 

his   own    sons.     John's    grandson,  Nevile's   Court.     See    Le   Keux's 

the  minister  of  Sandwich,  was  bap-  Memorials   of    Cambridge,    vol.    i. 

tized   at  Dorchester  May  3,   1668,  Trinity   College,   p,    29  ;    Fuller's 

with  the  name  i?oZ£'-on- Gof/.    It  was  Hist,  of  the  Univ.  p.  174;  Dyer's 

afterwards  spelt  Roland.  See  Mass.  Hist,  of  the  Univ.  ii.  331. 

Hist.  Coll.  ix.  193.  ^  He  was  admitted  to  the  degree 

^  This  must  refer  to  the  additions  of  A.  M.  at  Trinity  College  in  1606. 

made  in  the  mastership  of  Thomas  See  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  247. 
Nevile,   who  died  in  1615,  and  who 


THE    LIFE    OF    JOHN    COTTON.  421 

From  Trinity  College  he  removed  to  Emmanuel  chap. 

College,^  the  happy  seminary  of  learning  and  piety,  

where  he  was  honored  with  a  fellowship  in  that  So- 
ciety, after  a  diligent  and  strict  examen,  according 
to  the  statutes  of  that  House.  Wherein  this  is  worth 
the  taking  notice  of,  that  when  the  poser  came  to 
examine  him  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  the  place  where 
he  was  to  be  examined  was  that  in  Isaiah  iii.,  that 
speaks  against  the  bravery  of  women,  which  hath 
more  hard  words  together  than  any  place  in  the  Bi- 
ble within  so  narrow  a  compass,  and  might  have 
posed  a  very  good  Hebrician  ;  but  he  was  very 
ready  ac  it,  and  all  those  difficult  words  were  easy 
to  him.  Afterwards  he  was  head-lecturer,  and  dean, 
and  catechist  in  the  College,  and  was  a  diligent  tutor 
to  many  pupils,  and  very  much  beloved  of  them. 
His  exercises  that  he  performed  in  the  College, 
whether  in  the  way  of  common-place  or  dispute, 
wanted  not  sinews  and  strength,  were  highly  com- 
mended and  applauded  of  those  that  knew  him. 

The  first  time  that  he  became  famous  throughout 
the  whole   University,   was   from   a  funeral  oration 
which  he  made   in  Latin  for  Dr.  Some,^  who  was  leos. 
Master  of  Peter  House  ;  which  was  so  elegantly  and 
oratoriously  performed,  that  he  was  much  admired 

^  The  Puritan  College,  at  which  which,  when  it  becomes  an  oak, 
more  of  our  first  ministers  and  ma-  God  alone  knows  what  will  be  the 
gistrates  were  educated  than  at  any  fruit  thereof.'  "  See  note  *  on  page 
other.  It  was  founded  in  1585,  by  357  ;  Fuller's  Hist,  of  the  University, 
Sir  Walter  Mildmay.  Fuller  says,  p.  205,  (8vo.  ed.)  ;  Dyer's  Hist,  of 
that  "  coming  to  Court  after  he  had  the  Univ.  ii.  344-396  ;  Le  Keux's 
founded  his  College,  the  Queen  Memorials  of  Cambridge,  vol.  2 ; 
(Elizabeth)  told  him,  '  Sir  Walter,  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  247,  248. 
I  hear  you  have  erected  a  Puritan  ^  Robert  Soame  was  elected  Mas- 
foundation.'  '  No,  madam,'  saith  he,  ter  of  Peter  House  in  1589,  and  died 
'  far  be  it  from  me  to  countenance  in  1608.  See  Fuller's  History  of 
any  thing  contrary  to  your  estab-  the  University  of  Cambridge,  p.  48. 
lished  laws  ;  but  I  have  set  an  acorn, 


422  THE    LIFE    OF    JOHN    COTTON. 

CHAP,  for  it  by  the  greatest  wits  in  the  University.  After 
-^—  that,  being  called  to  preach  at  the  University  Church, 
^^^^-  called  St.  Mary's,  he  was  yet  more  famous  for  that 
sermon,  and  very  much  applauded  by  all  the  gallant 
scholars  for  it.  After  that,  being  called  to  preach 
there  again,  God  helped  him  not  to  flaunt,  as  before, 
but  to  make  a  plain,  honest  sermon,  which  was 
blessed  of  God  to  famous  Dr.  Preston's^  soul's  eter- 
nal good.  His  Concio  ad  Clerum,  when  he  took  his 
degree  for  Bachelor  of  Divinity,  which  was  after  he 
had  been  at  Boston  half  a  year  or  more,  was  very 
much  admired,  and  applauded  more  than  he  desired. 
His  text  was  out  of  Matthew,  v.  13.  Vos  estis  sal 
terra,  ;  quod  si  sal  infatuatus  fuerit,  quo  salidur  7  In 
handling  of  which,  both  the  matter  and  the  rhetorical 
strains,  elegancy  of  phrase,  and  sweet  and  grave 
pronunciation,  rendered  him  yet  more  famous  in  the 
University.  And  so  did  his  answering  of  the  Divin- 
ity Act  in  the  Schools,  though  he  had  a  very  nimble 
opponent,  Mr.  William  Chappel  by  name,  who  dis- 
puted with  him. 

H.  Concerning  his  removal  from  Cambridge  to  Bos- 
ton,^ in  Lincolnshire,  this  is  to  be  said,  that  his  call 
was  good,  for  their  desire  was  urgent,  their  need 
pressed,  their  assembly  of  people  very  great,  himself 
very  able,  and  his  heart  inclining  to  come  to  them. 
At  his  first  coming,  he  found  some  obstruction  from 
the  Bishop  of  the  Diocese,  which  was  B.  Barlow,^ 
who  told  him  he  was  a  young   man,  and  unfit  to  be 

'  Dr.  John  Preston,  at  this  time         ^  See  note  on  page  49  ;  Pishey 

feUow  of  Queen's,  was  afterwards  Thompson's  Hist,  of  Boston,  p.  86  ; 

Master  of    Emmanuel    CoUeg-e.  —  and  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  343. 
Some  account  of  him  will  be  found         ^  Barlow    was   succeeded  in  the 

on  a  subsequent  page.     See  the  In-  see  of  Lincoln    by  Dr.  John   Wil- 

dex.  liams,  in  August,  1621. 


THE    LIFE    OF    JOHN    COTTOX.  423 

over  such  a  factious  people.  Mr.  Cotton,  being  in-  chap. 
genuous,  and  undervaluing  himself,  thought  sd  too,  - — — ^ 
and  was  purposing  to  return  to  the  College  again. 
But  some  of  Mr.  Cotton's  Boston  friends,  understand- 
ing that  one  Simon  Biby^  was  to  be  spoken  with, 
which  was  near  the  Bishop,  they  presently  charmed 
him  ;  luI  so  the  business  went  on  smooth,  and  Mr. 
Cotton  was  a  learned  man  with  the  Bishop,  and  he 
was  admitted  into  the  place,  after  their  manner  in 
those  days. 

Well,  to  Boston  the  good  man  came,  and  for  three  1612. 
years  he  preached  and  lived  so  amongst  them,  that 
they  accounted  themselves  happy,  as  they  well 
might,  in  the  enjoyment  of  him,  both  the  town  and 
country  thereabout  being  much  bettered  by  him. 
But  it  pleased  God,  after  three  or  four  years  being  I615. 
there,  that  he  could  not  digest  the  ceremonies,  that 
were  so  pressed,  nor  conformity  to  them  ;  w^hich,  in 
some  space  of  lime  after,  bred  him  trouble  in  the 
Court  of  Lincoln,  from  which  he  was  advised  to  ap- 
peal to  a  higher  Court.  And  employing  Mr.  Lev- 
erit"^  (which  was  afterwards  one  of  the  ruling  elders 
of  the  Church  at  Boston  in  New-England,)  to  deal  in 

*  "  Which  some  call  Simony  and  arrived  Sept.  4.  On  the  10th  Oct. 
Bribery.^'  Marginal  Note,  by  the  he -was  chosen  a  ruling  elder  of  Bos- 
author,  Samuel  Whiting. — It  was  ton  church.  Winthrop  speaks  of 
by  the  influence  of  this  same  Simon  him  as  "  an  ancient,  sincere  profes- 
Biby,  "  a  near  alliance  of  the  Bish-  sor,  of  Mr.  Cotton's  congregation  in 
op"s  \-isiter,"  that  Richard  Mather  England."  His  wife,  Ann,  came 
was  restored  to  his  parish  at  Tox-  with  him.  His  son,  John,  knight- 
teth  in  Xov.  1633,  having  been  sus-  ed  by  Charles  H.  in  1676,  was 
pended  in  the  preceding  August  for  Governor  of  the  Colony  from  1673 
Nonconformity.  See  Mather's  Mag-  until  his  death,  March  16,  1679,  and 
nalia,  i.  405.  his  great-grandson,  John,  was  Pre- 

*  Thomas  Leverett  was  an  alder-  sident  of  Harvard  College  from  1708 
man  of  the  borough  of  Boston  ;  to  his  death,  May  3,  1724.  See 
which  office  he  resigned  July  22,  Winthrop,  i.  114,  ii.  245 ;  Hubbard, 
1633,  in  view  of  embarking  with  his  p.  190  ;  Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  269, 
pastor  for  New-England,  where  he  323  ;  Mass.  Plist.  Coll.  xxviii.  343. 


424  THE    LIFE    OF    JOHN    COTTON. 

CHAP,  that  business,  and  he  bemg  a  plain  man,  as  Jacob 
^^ — —  was,  yet  subtile  to  get  such  a  spiritual  blessing,  so 
far  insinuated  himself  into  one  of  the  proctors  of  the 
High  Court,  that  he  sware  in  animam  Domini,  that 
Mr.  Cotton  was  a  conformable  man,  and  so  he  was 
restored  to  Boston  ;  as  likewise  by  the  means  that  a 
gentleman  of  Boston,  called  Mr.  Bennett,  used  to 
bring  him  in  again. 

After  which,  he  was  marvellous  successful  in  his 
ministry,  till  he  had  been  twenty  years  there.  And 
1G32.  in  that  twenty  years'  space  he,  on  Lord's  day,  on 
afternoons,  went  over  thrice  the  whole  body  of  di- 
vinity in  a  catechistical  way,  and  gave  the  heads  of 
his  discourse  to  those  that  were  young  scholars,  and 
others  in  that  town,  to  answer  to  his  questions  in 
public  in  that  great  congregation  ;  and  after  their 
answers,  he  opened  those  heads  of  divinity,  and 
sweetly  applied  all  to  the  edification  of  his  people, 
and  to  such  strangers  as  came  to  hear  him.  In  the 
morning  on  the  Lord's  day,  he  preached  over  the 
first  six  chapters  of  the  Gospel  by  John,^  the  whole 
Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  the  Prophecy  of  Zephaniah,^ 
and  many  other  Scriptures  ;  and  when  the  Lord's 
Supper  was  administered,  (which  was  usually  every 
month,)  he  preached  upon  1  Cor.  xi.  and  the  whole 
30th  chapter  of  the  2  Chronicles,  and  some  other 
Scriptures  about  the  Lord's  Supper.  On  his  lecture 
days,  he  preached  through  the  whole  1st  and  2d 
Epistles  of  John,  the  whole  book  of  Solomon's  Song, 
the  Parables  of  our  Saviour,  set  forth  in  Matthew's 
Gospel  to  the  end  of  chapter  16th,  comparing  them 
with  Mark  and  Luke.    He  took  much  pains  in  private, 

'  Sec  note  ^  on    page   138,   and         "  Norton,  in  liis  Lite  of  (Jotton, 
note  ^  on  ptigc  221.  p.  17,  says  Zcchariah. 


THE    LIFE    OF    JOHN    COTTON.  425 

and  read  to  sundry  youns:  scholars  that  were  in  his  chap. 

"VVT 

house,  and  some  that  came  out  of  Germany,  and  had  ^ 

his  house  full  of  auditors.  Afterwards,  seeing  some 
inconveniences  in  the  people's  flocking  to  his  house, 
besides  his  ordinary  lecture  on  the  fifth  ^  day  of  the 
week,  he  preached  thrice  more  on  the  week  days,  on 
the  fourth  and  sixth  days,  early  in  the  morning,  and 
on  the  last  day,  at  three  of  the  clock  in  the  after- 
noon. Only  these  three  last  lectures  w^ere  perform- 
ed by  him  but  some  few  years,  before  he  had  another 
famous  colleague ~  with  him,  and  not  many  years 
before  he  left  Boston.  He  always  preached  at  the 
election  of  their  mayors,  and  at  that  time  when  they 
took  their  oath,  and  were  installed  in  their  office, 
and  always  (if  he  were  at  home,)  at  the  funerals  of 
those  of  the  abler  sort  that  died.  He  w^as  frequent 
in  duties  of  humiliation  and  thanksgiving  ;  in  which 
I  have  known  him  in  prayer  and  opening  the  word 
and  applying  it,  five  or  six  hours  ;  so  indefatigable 
he  was  in  the  Lord's  work,  and  so  ready  to  spend 
and  be  spent  for  his  people's  souls. 

He  was  of  admirable  candor,  of  unparalleled 
meekness,  of  rare  wisdom,  very  loving  even  to  those 
that  differed  in  judgment  from  him,  yet  one  that  held 
his  own  stoutly,  ardt  temns  accurategue  defendens  what 
himself  judged  to  be  the  truth.     He  answered  many 

^  This  fifth  day  or  Thursday  lee-  the  Lecture  day."     See  Winthrop, 

ture  he   transfen-ed   to    Boston    in  i.  112,  124 ;  Frothingham's  Sermon 

New-England,    where  it   has  been  at  the  close  of  the  Second  Century 

continued  ever  since  by  his  sncces-  since  the  establishment  of  the  Thurs- 

sors,  the  pastors  of  the  First  Church,  day  Lecture  ;  and  Waterston's  Dis- 

The   first  notice  of  it  is  found  in  course  on   its  reopening,  Dec.  14, 

Winthrop's  .Journal  under  March  4,  1843,    in   the   Christian  Examiner, 

1634,  by  which    it  appears  that  it  xxxvi.  24. 

was  already  established.  "  By  order  ^  Anthony  Tuckney,  who  marri- 

of  Court   a  mercate  was  erected  at  ed  his  cousin,  and  succeeded  him  in 

Boston,  to  be  kept  upon  Thursday,  the  vicarage, 
the   fifth   day   of  the  week,    being 


426  THE    LIFE    OF    JOHN    COTTON. 

CHAP,  letters  that  were  sent  far  and  near ;  wherein  were 
^^ — ~  handled  many  difficult  cases  of  conscience,  and  many 
doubts  by  him  cleared  to  the  greatest  satisfaction. 

He  was  exceedingly  beloved  of  the  best,  and 
admired  and  reverenced  of  the  worst  of  his  hearers. 
Nothing  was  wanting  to  make  him  a  complete  min- 
ister, nothing  lacking  to  make  him  a  perfect  Chris- 
tian, but  the  perfection  of  grace  w^hich  he  hath  now 
attained  to,  and  the  glory  he  hath  now  arrived  at. 
He  was  a  man  that  was  in  great  favor  with  Dr.  Wil- 
liams,^ the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  who  admired  him  for 
his  learning,  and  (as  I  have  been  told,)  when  he  was 
Lord  Keeper  of  the  great  seal,  he  went  to  King 
James,  and  speaking  of  Mr.  Cotton's  great  learning 
and  worth  before  him,  the  King  was  willing,  not- 
withstanding his  Nonconformity,  to  give  way  that  he 
should  have  his  liberty  to  go  on  without  interruption 
in  his  ministry  ;  which  was  very  marvellous,  consid- 
ering how  the  King's  spirit  was  carried  out  against 
such  men.    The  mystery  of  which  Mr.  Samuel  Ward,^ 

'  Dr.  John   Williams   succeeded  the  Rev.  Mr.  Osbaldiston,)  can  be 

Lord  Bacon  as  Keeper  of  the  Great  resolved  into  nothing  but  envy  and 

Seal,    July    10,    1621.      Within   a  revenge."      He    died    March    25, 

month  afterwards  he  was  made  Bi-  1649.     See   Fuller's  Worthies,   ii. 

shop  of  Lincoln,  and  in  1641  Arch-  585,  and  Ch.  Hist.  iii.  290,  388, 402, 

bishop  of  York.     He  was  mild  and  484-490  ;  Hallam's  Const.  Hist.  i. 

tolerant  towards  the   Puritans  and  447  ;  Aikin's  Life  of  James  L,  ii. 

Nonconformists,  and  this  probably  132,    250,    254  ;     Aikin's   Life   of 

was  the  cause  of  the  bitter  hatred  Charles   I.,    i.  422-430,    ii.    190  ; 

and  cruel  persecution  which  he  en-  Neal's  Puritans,  ii.  197,  308. 
countered  from  Laud.     "  This  pro-         *  Samuel  Ward  was  the  son   of 

secution"  says  Bishop  Warburton,  the  Rev.  John  Ward,  of  Haverhill, 

"  must  needs  give  every  one  a  bad  and  brother  of  our  Nathaniel  Ward, 

idea  of  Laud's  heart  and  temper,  mentioned  on  page  112,     He  seems 

You  might  resolve  his  high  acts  of  to  have  had  the  same  vein  of  humor 

power  in  the  State  into  reverence  with  the    author   of  "  The  Simple 

and  gratitude  to  his  master  ;  his  ty-  Cobbler    of    Agawam."     He    was 

ranny  in  the  Church  to  his  zeal  for  educated  at  Sidney  College,   Cam- 

and  love  of  what  he  called  religion  ;  bridge,   "  of  which  he  became  fel- 

but   the   outrageous   prosecution  of  low,"   says  Fuller,   "  being  an  ex- 

these  two   men   (Dr.  Williams  and  cellent   artist,    linguist,  divine   and 


THE    LIFE    OF    JOHN    COTTON.  427 

of  Ipswich,  being  ignorant  of,   spake  merrily  among  chap. 

some  of  his  friends,  "  Of  all  men  in  the  world  I  envy  

Mr.  Cotton,  of  Boston,  most  ;  for  he  doth  nothing 
in  way  of  conformity,  and  yet  hath  his  liberty,  and  I 
do  everything  that  way,  and  cannot  enjoy  mine." 

He  had  many  enemies  at  Boston,  as  w^ell  as  many 
friends,  and  some  that  rose  up  against  him,  and  plot- 
ted secretly  to  undermine  him,  and  others  that  prac- 
tised more  openly  against  him.  But  they  all  of  them 
were  blasted,  either  in  their  names,  or  in  their  es- 
tates, or  in  their  families,  or  in  their  devices,  or  else 
came  to  untimely  deaths  ;  which  shows  how  God 
both  owned  his  servant  in  his  holy  labors,  and  that  in 
the  things  wherein  they  dealt  proudly  against  him, 
he  would  be  above  them. 

One  thing  more,  and  I  have  done  with  him,  as  he 
was  one  of  England's  glories,  and  then  come  to  him 
as  over  the  Atlantic  ocean,  and  in  New-England  ; 
and  it  is  this,  concerning  his  hospitality,  wherein  he 
did  exceed  most  that  ever  I  heard  of.  And  espe- 
cially his  heart  and  doors  were  open  to  receive,  as 
all  that  feared  God,  so  especially  godly  ministers, 
which  he  most  courteously  entertained,  and  many 
other  strangers  besides.  Only  one  minister,  Mr. 
Hacket  by  name,  w^hich  had  got  into  the  fellowship 
of  famous  Mr.  Arthur  Hildersham,^  with  many  other 

preacher.    From  Cambridge  he  was  had    three    brethren   ministers  ;  on 

preferred  minister  of  Ipswich,  hav-  the  same  token  that  some  have  said, 

ing  a  care  over,  and  a  love  from,  all  that  these  four  put  together  would 

the  parishes  in  that  populous  place,  not  make  up  the  abilities  of  their 

Indeed  he   had   a    magnetic  virtue  father.     Nor  were  they  themselves 

(as  if  he   had  learned  it  from  the  offended  with  this  hyperbole,  to  have 

loadstone,  in  whose  qualities  he  was  the  branches    lessened   to    greaten 

so   knowing,)    to    attract    people's  their    root."     See    Fuller's    Wor- 

afFections.     Yet  found  he   foes   as  thies,  ii.  344  ;  Brook's  Lives  of  the 

well  as  friends,   who  complained  of  Puritans,  ii.  452. 

him  to  the  High  Commission.     He  '  See  note  '  on  page  66. 


428  THE    LIFE    OF    JOHN    COTTON. 

CHAP,  godly  ministers,    and   being    acquainted  with   their 

secrets,  betrayed  them  into  the  prelates'  hands,  this 

man,  coming  into  Boston,  and  meeting  with  Mr. 
Cotton,  the  good  man  had  not  the  heart  to  speak  to 
him,  nor  invite  him  to  his  house  ;  which  he  said  he 
never  did  to  any  stranger  that  he  knew^  before,  much 
less  to  any  minister. 

III.  Concerning  the  last  thing,  viz.  his  departure 
from  Boston  to  New-England.  The  times  growing 
perilous,  he  was  envied  of  some  at  home,  and  others 
abroad  ;  and  letters  missive  were  come  to  convent 
him  before  the  High  Commission  Court  ;  and  a  pro- 
fligate fellow  and  a  fdthy  fornicator,  Gowen  Johnson 
by  name,  who  not  long  after  died  of  the  plague,  was 
to  bring  the  letters  to  him,  as  he  did  to  some  others 
near  him.  Which  when  Mr.  Cotton  understood,  he 
looked  for  nothing  from  the  Court  but  scorns  and 
prison  ;  and  therefore,  with  advice  from  many  able 
heads  and  gracious  hearts,  he  kept  close  for  a  time, 
and  fitted  himself  to  go  to  New-England.^ 
1033.  And  God  bringing  him  and  his  company  over  in 
'^^P^*  safety,  through  his  mercy,  after  they  had  been  there 
a  while,  there  grew  some  trouble  between  those  that 
were  to  settle  matters  in  church  and  commonwealth. 
But  Mr.  Cotton  then  preaching  before  the  General 

*  "  Ilis  forced  flight  "  says  Jolin  cully,"  says  Winthrop,  "  all  places 
Davenport,  "  from  Boston  to  Lon-  being  belaid  to  have  taken  Mr.  Cot- 
don  for  his  safety  from  pursuivants  ton  and  Mr.  Hooker,  who  had  been 
sent  to  apprehend  him,  I  well  re-  long  sought  for  to  have  been  brought 
member  ;  and  admire  tlie  special  into  the  High  Conmiission.  But 
providence  of  God  towards  myself  the  master  being  bound  to  touch  at 
and  some  others  in  it,  amongst  the  Wight,  the  pursuivants  attended 
whom  safe  retirement  and  hiding-  there,  and  in  the  mean  time,  the 
places  were  provided  for  him  in  and  ministers  were  taken  in  at  the 
about  London."  Davenport  was  at  Downs."  See  note  *  on  page  102, 
this  lime  vicar  of  St.  Stephen's,  in  and  note  ^  on  page  2G0  ;  Norton's 
Coleman-street,  London. — "They  Life  of  Cotton,  pp.  21,  32  ;  Win- 
got  out  of  England  with  much  difli-  throp,  i.  109  ;    Mather,  i.  240,  241. 


THE    LIFE    OF    JOHN    COTTON,  429 

Court  an  excellent  sermon  out  of  Ha2fs:ai,  ii.  "  Be  chap. 

°^  XXI. 

strong,  Zerubbabel,  and  be  strong,  Joshua,  and  be  strong,  

ye  people  of  the  land,"  &c.,  it  pleased  God  so  to  com- 
pose and  calm  and  quiet  spirits,  that  all  apprehensions 
were  laid  aside,  and  they  went  about  the  work  of  the 
Lord  very  comfortably,  and  were  much  encouraged.^ 
After  which  time,  how  useful  he  was  to  England,  to 
New-England,  to  magistrates,  ministers,  people,  in 
public,  in  private,  by  preachings,  counsels,  dissolv- 
ing hard  knots  and  answering  difficult  questions,  all 
knew  that  knew  the  grace  of  God  so  evidently  mani- 
fested in  him.  What  Scriptures  he  went  over  on 
Lord's  days,  in  expounding  and  preaching,  I  cannot 
certainly  say,  because  I  was  of  another  church,^ 
serving  there  according  to  the  grace  bestowed  upon 
me.  But  surely  he  went  through  very  many.  For 
on  his  Lecture  days  he  preached  over  the  whole 
book  of  the  Revelation,  Ecclesiastes,  and  Canticles, 
the  second  and  third  Epistles  of  John,  the  two  Epis- 
tles of  Timothy,  with  divers  others  ;  all  which  shows 
the  unwearied  pains  which  he  took  in  the  Lord's 
work,  besides  all  the  books ^  that  were  written  by 
him,  and  other  unknown  labors  that  he  went  through. ' 

'  Cotton   preached    the    Election  King's  Chapel,)  in  the  northern  cor- 

Sermon  in  May,  1634.     See  Win-  ner,  near  the    Savings'  Bank,  and 

throp,  i.  132.  not  far  from  Winthrop's  tomb.     In 

^  Whiting  was  the  pastor  of  the  the  same  grave  with  Cotton's,  re- 
church  at  Lynn,  where  he  was  set-  pose  the  ashes  of  his  friend,  John 
tied  in  Nov.  1636.  See  Winthrop,  Davenport.  His  daughter  Maria 
i.  204.  married   Increase  Mather,  and  was 

^  A  list  of  Cotton's  writings  may  the  mother  of  Cotton  Mather.     His 

be  seen  in  Emerson's  History  of  the  son   Seaborn   married  Dorothy,  the 

First  Church  in  Boston,  page  85.  daughter   of  Gov.  Bradstreet,   and 

*  Cotton  died  on  Thursday,  Dec.  was  settled  in  the  ministry  at  Hamp- 

23,  1652,  between  the  hours  of  11  ton,  in  New-Hampshire,   where  he 

and  12,  after  the  bell  had  called  to  was   succeeded   by   his   son   John, 

the    Lecture.     Upon   the   29th   he  Seaborn's   younger  brother,  John, 

was  interred  in  a  brick  tomb  in  the  was  tlie  niinish'r  of  Plynunilli,  and 

old  burying-ground,   (adjoining  the  had  two  sons,  John  and  Roland,  who 


430  THE    LIFE    OF    JOHN    COTTON. 

CHAP.  I  could  speak  much  more  ;  but  at  this  present 
— ~  want  strength.  But  this  I  say  ;  he  may  be  a  pattern 
to  us  all,  and  happy  they  that  come  nearest  him  in 
those  things  wherein  he  most  followed  Christ.  I  am 
not  like  to  live  to  see  such  another  in  New-England, 
though  I  know  God  is  able  to  double  the  spirit  of 
that  Elias  upon  him  that  succeeds  him,  and  upon 
many  others  in  our  native  country  and  here.  It  is 
well  for  both  the  Bostons  that  they  had  such  a  light, 
if  they  walk  in  the  light,  and  continue  in  that  word 
of  Christ  and  light  of  grace  and  truth  that  he  held 
out  to  them.  I  end  all  with  that  of  our  Saviour  con- 
cerning John  Baptist,  "  he  was  a  burning  and  a 
shining  light  ;"  and  God  grant  the  after  words  be  not 
verified  of  both  Englands,  and  both  Bostons.  I 
speak  my  fears,  but  would  be  glad  to  entertain  bet- 
ter hopes.  My  prayers  shall  be,  that  it  may  never 
be  said  as  of  old,  Fuimus  Troes,  fuit  Ilium ;  sed 
jam  seges  est  uhi  Troja  fuit.  Fuimus  fideles,  fuimus 
(fLlod-toL  ;  fuit  Anglia,  fuit  Nov-Anglia,  fuit  Bosto- 
nia,  EuropcBa^  Americana.  Deus,  Pater  miserationum, 
avert  at  omen  per  viscera  Jesu  Christi !     Amen. 

Samuel  Whiting.^ 

Pastor  Liimensis  Nov-Anglicanus. 

were  the  ministers  of  Yarmouth  and  had  for  a  chamber-mate  his  cousin, 

Sandwich.     See    Norton's  Life   of  Anthony    Tuckney,   the   colleague 

Cotton,  p.  46  ;  Mather's  Magnalia,  and  successor  of  Cotton  in  Boston 

i.  300.  church.     He  was  a  minister  three 

*  Samuel  Whiting,    the  author  years   at   Lynn  Regis  in   Norfolk, 

of  the  preceding  biography,  was  of  and    afterwards    at   Skirbeck,  less 

a  reputable  family  in  Boston,  in  Lin-  than  a  mile  from  Boston  ;  "  where," 

colnshire,  where  he  was  born  Nov.  says  Mather,    "  he   was   refreshed 

20,  1597.     His   father  and  brother  with  the  delightful  neighbourhood 

were  both  mayors  of  that  borough,  of  his   old   friends,   and   especially 

He  was  educated  at  Emanuel  Col-  those  eminent  persons,  Mr.  Cotton 

lege,  Cambridge,  where  he  took  the  and  Mr.  Tuckney,  to  both  of  whom 

degree  of  A.  B.  in  1616,  and  of  A.  he  had  some  affinity."     Being  ha- 

M.  in  1620.     At  the   University  he  rassed    for   his  Nonconformity,  he 


SAMUEL    WHITING,  OF    LYNN. 


431 


embarked  for  New-England,  and 
arrived  at  Boston  May  26,  1636. 
After  spending  a  month  with  his 
kinsman,  Atherton  Hough,  he  re- 
moved to  Lynn,  where  he  was  or- 
dained in  November,  and  where  he 
continued  till  his  death,  Dec.  11, 
1679,  in  his  83d  year.  His  second 
wife,  Elizabeth,  was  the  daughter 
of  Oliver  St.  John,  who  was  Chief 
Justice  of  England  in  Cromwell's 
reign,  and  whose  second  wife  was 
a  cousin  of  Cromwell's.  One  of 
Whiting's  sons,  Samuel,  was  the 
first  minister  of  Billeriea.  His  vi- 
cinity to  Cotton,  before  their  remo- 
val to  America,  afforded  him   the 


best  opportunities  to  obtain  informa- 
tion concerning  his  life  and  history  ; 
and  we  are  under  great  obligations 
to  him  for  his  admirable  biographi- 
cal sketch.  It  forms  the  foundation 
of  Norton's  as  well  as  of  Mather's 
Life  of  this  great  man.  Both  of 
them  appropriate  Whiting's  labors 
most  unceremoniously,  and  add  but 
little  to  his  original  sketch.  See 
note  '  on  page  419  ;  Winthrop,  i, 
204  ;  Mather,  i.  249,  452-461  ; 
Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  19  ;  Carlyle's 
Cromwell,  i.  94,  97,  556  ;  Thomp- 
son's Hist,  of  Boston,  pp.  100,263, 
264  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  248, 
344. 


432  JOHN  cotton's  letter  to  his  wife. 


COTTON  S    letter    TO    HIS    WIFE. 


Dear  wife,  and  comfortable  yoke-fellow, 

CHAP.  If  our  heavenly  Father  be  pleased  to  make  our 

> — -^  yoke  more  heavy  than  we  did  so  soon'   expect,  re- 
1632.  member  (I  pray  thee,)  what  we  have  heard,  that  our 

Oct 

3. '  heavenly  husband,  the  Lord  Jesus,  when  he  first 
called  us  to  fellow^ship  with  himself,  called  us  unto 
this  condition,  to  deny  ourselves  and  to  take  up  our 
cross  daily,  to  follow  him.  And  truly,  sweet  heart, 
though  this  cup  may  be  brackish  at  the  first  taste, 
yet  a  cup  of  God's  mingling  is  doubtless  sweet  in  the 
bottom  to  such  as  have  learned  to  make  it  their 
greatest  happiness  to  partake  with  Christ,  as  in  his 
glory,  so  in  the  way  that  leadeth  to  it. 

Where  I  am  for  the  present,"  I  am  very  fitly  and 
welcomely  accommodated,  I  thank  God  ;  so,  as  I  see, 
here  I  might  rest,  (desired  enough,)  till  my  friends 
at  home  shall  direct  further.  They  desire  also  to 
see  thee  here ;  but  that  I  think  it  not  safe  yet,  till  we 
see  how  God  will  deal  with  our  neighbours  at  home. 
For  if  you  should  now  travel  this  way,  I  fear  you 
will  be  watched  and  dogged  at  the  heels.  But  I 
hope  shortly  God  will  make  way  for  thy  safe  coming. 

Meanwhile,  send  me  now  by  this  bearer  such  linen 
as  I  am  to  use. 

*  May  we  not  infer  from  this  ex-  *  Cotton  was  at  this  time  in  con- 
pression  that  they  had  been  recently  ccalment  in  London.  See  note  ^  on 
married  ?  pasj^e  428. 


JOHN    COTTON  S    LETTER    TO    HIS    WIFE. 


433 


If  Margarett  be   fit    to   come   with   this   bearer,  ™|P. 
whither  I  shall  direct  him,  she  may  come  behind 
him  upon  my  mare,  unless  she  desire  to  stay  with 
some  other,  at  Boston  ;   which  if  she  do,  help  her 
therein. 

I  pray  you  go  to  my  mother,  Havered,^  and  com- 
mend my  hearty  respect  and  love  to  her  ;  and  the 
rather  because  I  had  not  time  to  see  her  at  my  com- 
ing out.  To  many  other  friends  it  will  not  be  meet 
to  speak  of  me  now.  The  Lord  watch  over  you  all 
for  good,  and  reveal  himself  in  the  guidance  of  all 
our  affairs. 

So  with  my  love  to  thee,  as  myself,  I  rest,  desir- 
ous of  thy  rest  and  peace  in  Him, 

J.  C. 
Octoler  3,  1632. 

When  you  have  read  my  letter  to  Margarett,  seal 
it  up  and  give  it  her.  Once  again.  Farewell  in  the 
Lord.  If  she  be  not  ready  to  come  with  him  now,  he 
may  come  for  her  the  next  week. 

[^Addressed  on  the  outside.,^ 

To  my  dear  wife,  Mrs.  Sarah  Cotton,* 
deliver  this  Avith  speed. 

'  Was  this  the  mother  of  his  first  p.  57.     Cotton's  widow  married  the 

wife,  whom  Mather,  i.   237,    calls  Rev.  Richard  Mather,  of  Dorches- 

Horrocks,  married  again  to  a  Mr.  ter.  — It  appears  from  an  endorse- 

Havered  ?  ment  on  this  letter,  in  the  handwrit- 

-  This  letter  was  wTitten  to  his  ing  of  Prince,  the  Annalist,  that  it 

second  wife,  Sarah  Story,  who  was  was  once  in  the  possession  of  In- 

a  widow  when  he  married  her,  pro-  crease  Mather.    Prince  prints  a  part 

bably  in  1632.     His  first  wife,  Eli-  of  it  on  page  419  of  his  Annals.     It 

zabeth  Horrocks,    with    whom    he  is    printed  now   for   the  first   time 

lived   eighteen   years,   but   had  no  entire,  from  the  original,  preserved 

children,  was  living  as  late  as  Oct.  among  Prince's  manuscripts  in  the 

2,   1630,   as  appears  from   another  Archives  of  the  Mass.  Hist.  Society, 

letter  of  his  printed  in  the  Appendix  See  Norton's  Life  of  Cotton,  p.  18  ; 

to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Harris's  Memorials  Mather's  Magnalia,  i.  237. 
of  the  First  Church  in  Dorchester, 
28 


434  JOHN  cotton's  letter 


cotton's    letter    to    TPIE    bishop    of    LINCOLN.^ 


To  the  Right  Reverend  and  my  very  honorable  good  Lord,  John, 
Lord  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  at  his  palace  in  Buckden^  present  these. 

My  very  good  Lord, 

It  is  now  above  twenty  years  ago,  since,  by 
the  goodness  of  God,  and  for  a  good  part  of  this  time 
by  your  Lordship's  lawful  favor,  I  have  enjoyed  the 
happiness  to  minister  to  the  Church  of  God  at  Bos- 
ton, a  remote  corner  of  your  Lordship's  diocese. 
What  I  have  done  there,  all  this  while,  and  how  I 
have  spent  my  time  and  course,  I  must  ere  long  give 
account  to  the  Great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,  the 
Bishop  of  our  souls.  Meanwhile,  give  me  leave  to 
make  your  Lordship  this  short  account. 

The  bent  of  my  course  hath  been,  (according  to 
my  weak  measure,)  to  make  and  keep  a  threefold 
Christian  concord  amongst  the  people ;  between  God 
and  their  conscience  ;  between  true-hearted  loyalty 
and  Christian  liberty  ;  between  the  fear  of  God  and 
the  love  of  one  another.  That  wherein  I  have  most 
seemed  to  your  Lordship  to  fail,  to  wit,  in  not  dis- 
cerning Christian  liberty  to  practise  some  commands 
of  authority  in  some    circumstances,    I  do  humbly 

'  Dr.  John  Williams.     See  note  *  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  situated  here, 

on  page  426.  was   pulled   down   by  an   order  of 

^  Buckden   is   in   the   county   of  Council,   April  3,   1838.     Some  of 

Huntingdon,  on  the  western  bank  of  the   bisliops  of  Lincoln   have  been 

the  Ouse,  four  miles  southwest  from  interred  in  the  cluirch  at  Buckden. 
Huntingdon.    The  ancient  palace  of 


TO    THE    BISHOP    OF    LINCOLN.  435 

thank  your  Lordship,  and  freely  acknowledge  your  chap. 

Lordship  hath  not  been  wanting  freely  and  often  to  

admonish  me  thereof,  and  that  with  such  wisdom  and  \^/^" 
'  .  May- 

gravity,  and  with  such  well-tempered  authority  and     7. 

mildness,  that  I  profess  unfeignedly  no  outward  re- 
spect in  the  world  could  have  detained  me  from  re- 
questing your  Lordship's  favor,  with  ready  subjec- 
tion to  your  Lordship's  counsel,  that  I  might  have 
prolonged  mine  own  peace  and  your  Lordship's  favor 
together.  But  so  it  is,  my  good  Lord,  though  I  do 
unfeignedly  and  deservedly  honor  your  Lordship, 
and  highly  esteem  many  hundreds  of  other  reverend 
divines,  great  lights  of  the  Church,  (in  comparison  of 
whom,  what  am  I,  poor  spark  ?)  who  doubt  not  of 
their  liberty  in  those  matters,  yet  to  this  day,  (I 
speak  in  the  simplicity  of  my  heart,)  I  can  only  fol- 
low your  Lordship  with  observance,  and  them  with 
reverence,  but  not  with  that  plerophory  of  faith  in  ^°'"- 
these  things  which  in  such  cases  the  Apostle  requir- 
eth.  Your  Lordship  well  knoweth  it  is  both  the 
Apostles'  and  Prophets'  principle,  (and  it  holdeth 
in  every  righteous  man,  from  the  meanest  to  the 
greatest,)  Justus  ex  fide  sua  vivit,  non  aliend  ;  and 
therefore,  howsoever  I  do  highly  prize  and  much 
prefer  other  men's  judgment  and  learning  and  wis- 
dom and  piety,  yet  in  things  pertaining  to  God  and 
his  worship,  still  I  must,  as  I  ought,  live  by  mine 
own  faith,  not  theirs.  Nevertheless,  where  I  cannot 
yield  obedience  of  faith,  I  am  willing  to  yield  pa- 
tience of  hope. 

And  now,  my  good  Lord,  I  see  the  Lord,  who 
began  a  year  or  two  ago  to  suspend,  after  a  sort,  my 
ministry  from  that  place  by  a  long  and  sore  sicknesSj 


XIV.  5. 


436  JOHN  cotton's  letter 

CHAP,  the  dregs  whereof  still  hang  about  me,  doth  now  put 

•^ ^  a  further  necessity  upon  me  wholly  to  lay  down  my 

163  3.  ministry  there,  and  freely  to  resign  my  place  into 
7^^  your  Lordship's  hands.  For  I  see  neither  my  bodily 
health,  not  the  peace  of  the  Church,  will  now  stand 
with  my  continuance  there.  I  do  now  therefore  hum- 
bly crave  this  last  favor  at  your  Lordship's  hand,  to 
accept  my  place  as  void,  and  to  admit  thereto  such  a 
successor  as  your  Lordship  shall  find  fit,  and  the  pa- 
tron, which  is  the  corporation  of  Boston,  shall  present 
to  you  therefor.^  The  congregation  is  great,  and 
the  church  duties  many,  and  those  many  times  re- 
quiring close  attendance  ;  and  I  would  be  very  loth 
the  service  of  God  or  the  help  of  the  people  should 
be  in  any  sort  neglected  by  my  long  discontinuance. 
What  though  this  resignation  of  my  place  into 
your  Lordship's  hands  may  be  defective  in  some  form 
of  law,  yet  I  trust  your  Lordship  will  never  forget 
the  ancient  moderation  and  equity  of  that  honorable 

*  "  At  an  assembly  holden  at  the  same  resignation,  and  did  then  pro- 
Guildhall  of  the  Borough  of  Boston,  nounce  the  same  \acarage  to  be  ac- 
in  the  county  of  Lincoln,  this  22d  tually  void  of  incumbent,  and  that 
dayof  July,  1633,  before  the  Mayor,  he  did  then,  by  the  said  Thomas 
Aldermen,  and  Common   Council :  Cony,    intimate   to  the  Mayor  and 

"At  this  assembly,  Mr.  John  Cot-  Burgesses  of  Boston  the  voidance  of 

ton,  late  vicar  of  Boston,  yielded  up  the   same,  to  the  end  that  the  said 

his  place  of  being  vicar,  by  his  letter  Mayor  and   Burgesses  may,    when 

dated  in   July,    1633,    which    this  they  please,  present  some  able  per- 

House  have  accepted.  son  thereunto." 

"  At  this  assembly  there  was  an  Whereupon  the  Corporation  pro- 
intimation  delivered  to  the  Mayor  ceeded  forthwith,  as  the  Record 
and  Burgesses  of  this  Borough,  shows,  and  made  choice  of  Mr.  An- 
from  the  right  honorable  John,  Lord  thony  Tuckney  to  be  their  vicar, 
Bishop  of  Lincoln,  by  the  hands  of  who  continued  in  office  till  1660, 
Mr.  Thomas  Cony,  [town-clerk]  of  twenty-seven  years.  We  are  in- 
this  town,  intimating  that  the  8th  debted  to  Mr.  Savage  for  this  trans- 
of  July,  1633,  Mr.  John  Cotton,  late  cript  from  the  records  of  Boston, 
vicar  of  Boston,  had  resigned  his  See  his  Gleanings  for  New-England 
said  vicarage  to  the  said  Bishop,  and  History,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii. 
that  the  said  Lord  Bishop  did  the  344;  and  Thompson's  Hist,  of  Bos- 
same  day,  at  his  house  in  the  Col-  ton,  pp.  86,  271. 
lege  of  Westminster,  accept  of  tlie 


TO    THE    BISHOP    OF    LINCOLN.  437 

and  high  Court  of  Chancery,  whereunto  your  Lord-  chap. 

ship  was  advanced,  to  temper  the  rigor  of  legal  jus — 

tice  to  the  relief  of  many  distressed.    Never,  I  think,  i^^s. 
came  there  any  cause  before  your  Lordship  more  dis-     7, 
tressed,  nor  more  justly  craving  Christian  equity. 

Now  the  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth  so  guide  and 
keep  and  bless  your  Lordship  on  earth,  that  he  may 
delight  to  crown  your  Lordship  with  honor  in  hea- 
ven, at  the  end  of  your  days,  through  Jesus  Christ. 
Thus  at  once  commending  my  humble  suit,  and  late 
vicarage,  and  the  comfort  of  the  whole  congregation, 
to  your  Lordship's  honorable  favor  and  integrity,  I 
humbly  take  leave,  and  rest 

A  bounden  suppliant  to  your  Lordship, 

And  for  you,  J.  C. 

May  7,  1633. 


438  JOHN  cotton's  reasons 


COTTON  S    reasons    FOR    HIS    REMOVAL    TO 
NEW-ENGLAND. 

Reverend  and  beloved  brother  in  our  blessed  Saviour,* 

CHAP.  That  which  you  observe  touchina;  the  wonder- 
XXI.  -^  ... 
ful  goodness  of  the  Lord  to  my  wife  and  child  in  the 

1634.  miJst  of  deep  dangers,~  I  desire  never  to  forget  it, 
3^^'  but  to  w^alk,  (as  the  Lord  shall  be  pleased  to  help 
me,)  according  to  that  abundant  faithfulness  of  his  to 
one  so  undeserving,  all  my  days.  Help  me  with 
your  faithful  prayers  so  to  do,  that  as  by  the  prayers 
of  yourself  and  other  brethren  I  acknowdedge  the 
former  mercy  to  have  been  granted  me,  so  by  the 
same  a  faithful  and  fruitful  use  of  it  may  be  granted  to 
me  likewise.  Otherwise,  (I  may  say  it  with  shame,) 
I  see  a  frame  of  spirit  in  myself  ready  to  turn  every 
grace  of  God  into  unprofitableness,  yea,  and  forget- 
fulness  of  the  most  high  God,  the  God  of  our  sal- 
vation. Howsoever  God  dealt  otherwise  with  my 
cousin  Tuckney,^  (which  might  give  unto  some  whom 

'  This  letter  was  addressed  to  one  was  baptized  at  Boston  Sept.  8,  four 

of  the  Puritan  ministers  in  England,  days  after  his  father's  arrival.     He 

perhaps  John    Davenport,    Richard  was  ordained  the  third   minister  of 

Mather,  or  Thomas  Shepard.  Hampton,  in   16G0,  and  died  April 

*  This  refers  to  the  birth  of  his  19,  1686,  asjed  52.     See  Winthrop, 

eldest  son,  born  on  the  voyatre  in  i.    110;    Norton's   Life  of  Cotton, 

August,  1633,  and  whom  he  named  page  18. 

Seaborn,  "  to  keep  alive  (said  he,)         ^  The  wife  of  Anthony  Tuckney, 

in  me,  and  to  teach  him,  if  he  live,  his  colleague  and  successor  in  the 

a  remembrance  of  sea-mercies  from  church   at   Boston.     Tuckney  was 

the  hand  of  a  gracious  God."     Li  born  in  Sept.  1599,  at  Kirton,  four 

the  Triennial  Catalogue  of  the  Grad-  miU's  from  Boston,  of  which  place 

uates   of  Harvard    (College,    under  his  father  was  minister.     He  was 

1651,  he  is  called   Marigena.     He  educated    at    Emmanuel     College, 


FOR    COMING    TO    NEW-ENGLAND.  439 

it  nearly  concerned  a  seasonable  advertisement,)  yet  chap. 

I  am  persuaded  it  was  in  much  faithfulness  to  her  that  

God  took  her  away,  to  prevent  the  disquietness  and  i^^*- 
discouragement  of  her  spirit ;   which  the  evils  ensu-      3, ' 
ing,    evils  hastening   upon  the  town,^  would   have 
brought  upon  her.     The  Lord  is  wise  and  gracious, 
and  knoweth  how  to  deliver  his  out  of  the  hour  of 
temptation  ;  blessed  forever  be  his  name  in  Christ ! 

The  questions  you  demand  I  had  rather  answer  by 
w^ord  of  mouth  than  by  letter.  Yet  I  will  not  refuse 
to  give  you  account  of  my  brother  Hooker's  removal 
and  mine  own,  seeing  you  require  a  reason  thereof 
from  us  both.  We  both  of  us  concur  in  a  threefold 
ground  of  our  removal. 

1 .  God  having  shut  a  door  against  both  of  us  from 
ministering  to  him  and  his  people  in  our  wonted 
congregations,  and  calling  us,  by  a  remnant  of  our 
people,  and  by  others  of  this  country,  to  minister  to 
them  here,  and  opening  a  door  to  us  this  way,  who 
are  we  that  w^e  should  strive  against  God,  and  refuse 
to  follow  the  concurrence  of  his  ordinance  and  prov- 
idence together,  calling  us  forth  to  minister  here  ? 
If  we  may  and  ought  to  follow  God's  calling  three 
hundred  miles,  why  not  three  thousand  ? 

Cambridge,   with   his    cousin,    our  scribino;  the  Confession.     After  the 

Samuel  Whiting,   of  Lynn.     After  Restoration  he  was  one  of  the  Com- 

graduating,  he  was  chaplain  to  the  missioners  at  the  Conference  held  at 

Earl  of  Lincoln  till  he  was  chosen  the  Savoy  in  1661.     He  was  soon, 

fellow  of  his  CoUege.     In  1645,  he  however,  compelled  to  resign  all  his 

was  chosen  Master  of  Emmanuel,  places,  on  account  of  his  Puritan- 

and  in  1653  Master  of  St.  John's,  ism  and  Nonconformity^  and  died  at 

He  was  also  vice-chancellor  of  the  London,   in  February,  1670,  in  his 

University  in  1648,  and  Regius  Pro-  71st  year.     See  note  on  page  430  , 

fessor  of  Divinity.     He  was  one  of  Calamy's    Nonconformists'    Memo- 

the  Assembly  of  Divines  that  met  at  rial,  i.  264  ;  Neal's  History  of  the 

Westminster   in   1643,    and   had   a  Puritans,  iii.   141  ;  Dyer's  Hist,  of 

hand  in  drawing  up  the  Assembly's  Univ.  of  Cambridge.  1.  119,  ii.  354, 
Catechism,  but  voted  against  sub-        '  Boston,  in  Lincolnshiie. 


1634. 


XXI.  7. 


440  JOHN  cotton's  reasons 

CHAP.  2.  Our  Saviour's  warrant  is  clear  and  strong  (as 
we  conceive,)  in  our  case,  that  when  we  are  dis- 
tressed in  our  course  in  one  country,  (ne  quid  dicam 
3. '    gravius,)  we  should   flee  to    another.      To    choose 

Matth.   rather  to  bear  witness  to  the  truth  by  imprisonment 

X    23 

than  by  banishment,  is  indeed  sometimes  God's  way; 
but  not  in  case  men  have  ability  of  body  and  oppor- 
tunity to  remove,  and  no  necessary  engagement  for 
J^".tin^.  to  stay.  Whilst  Peter  was  young,  he  might  gird 
himself  and  go  whither  he  would  ;  but  when  he  was 
old  and  unfit  for  travel,  then  indeed  God  called  him 
rather  to  suffer  himself  to  be  girt  of  others,  and  led 
along  to  prison  and  to  death.  Nevertheless,  in  this 
point  I  conferred  with  the  chief  of  our  people,  and 
offered  them  to  bear  witness  to  the  truth  I  had 
preached  and  practised  amongst  them,  even  unto 
bonds,  if  they  conceived  it  might  be  any  confirmation 
to  their  faith  and  patience.  But  they  dissuaded  me 
that  course,  as  thinking  it  better  for  themselves,  and 
for  me,  and  for  the  church  of  God,  to  withdraw  my- 
self from  the  present  storm,  and  to  minister  in  this 
country  to  such  of  their  town  ^  as  they  had  sent  be- 
fore hither,  and  such  others  as  were  willing  to  go 
along  with  me,  or  to  follow  after  me  ;  the  most  of 
the  [obliterated]  choosing  rather  to  dwell  in  the  [a 
line  and  a  half  obliterated]  there.  What  service  my- 
self or  brother  Hooker  might  do  to  our  people  or 
other  brethren  in  prison,  (especially  in  close  prison, 
which  was  feared,)  I  suppose  we  both  of  us,  by  God's 
help,  do  the  same,  and  much  more,  and  with  more 
freedom  from  hence,  as  occasion  is  offered  ;  besides 
all  our  other  service  to  the  people  here,  which  yet  is 

'  Boston,   in   Lincolnshire.     Sec  note  ^  on  page  48. 


FOR    COMING    TO    NEW-ENGLAND.  441 

enough,  and  more  than  enough,  to  fill  both  our  hands,  crap- 

yea  and   the  hands  of  many  brethren  more,  such  as  

yourself,  should  God  be  pleased  to  make  way  for  ^^^*- 

•         •        Dec. 

your  comfortable  passage  to  us.^  To  have  tarried  in  3. " 
England  for  the  end  you  mention,  to  appear  in  de- 
fence of  that  cause  for  which  we  were  questioned, 
had  been,  as  we  conceive  it  in  our  case,  to  limit 
witness-bearing  to  the  cause  (which  may  be  done 
more  ways  than  one,)  to  one  only  way,  and  that  such  a 
way  as  we  did  not  see  God  calling  us  unto.  Did  not 
Paul  bear  witness  against  the  Levitical  ceremonies, 
and  yet  choose  rather  to  depart  quickly  out  of  Hie- 
rusalem,  because  the  most  of  the  Jews  would  not  xxii.i8. 
receive  his  testimony  concerning  Christ  in  that  ques- 
tion, than  to  stay  at  Hierusalem  to  bear  witness  to 
that  cause  unto  prison  and  death  ?  Not  that  we  came 
hither  to  strive  against  ceremonies,  or  to  fight  against 
shadows ;  there  is  no  need  of  our  further  labor  in 
that  course.  Our  people  here  desire  to  worship 
God  in  spirit  and  in  truth  ;  and  our  people  left  in 
England  know  as  well  the  grounds  and  reasons  of  our 
suffering  against  these  things,  as  our  sufferings  them- 
selves ;  which  we  beseech  the  Lord  to  accept  and 
bless  in  our  blessed  Saviour.  How  far  our  testimony 
there  hath  prevailed  with  any  others  to  search  more 
seriously  into  the  cause,  we  do  rather  observe  in 
thankfulness  and  silence,  than  speak  of  to  the  pre- 
judice of  our  brethren. 

3.  It  hath  been  no  small  inducement  to  us  to 
choose  rather  to  remove  hither  than  to  stay  there, 
that  we  might  enjoy  the  liberty,  not  of  some  ordi- 
nances of  God,  but  of  all,   and  all   in  purity.     For 

'  See  note  '  on  page  43*^. 


442  JOHN  cotton's  reasons 

CHAP,  though  we  bless  the  Lord  with  you  for  the  gracious 

means  of  salvation  which  many  of  your  congregations 

1634.  ^Q  enjoy,  (whereof  our   own  souls  have  found  the 

Dec  •  • 

3.  *  blessing,  and  which  we  desn-e  may  be  forever  con- 
tinued and  enlarged  to  you,)  yet  seeing  Christ  hath 
instituted  no  ordinance  in  vain,  (but  all  to  the  per- 
fecting of  the  body  of  Christ,)  and  we  know  that  our 
souls  stand  in  need  of  all  to  the  utmost,  we  durst  not 
so  far  be  wanting  to  the  grace  of  Christ  and  to  the 
necessity  of  our  own  souls,  as  to  sit  down  somewhere 
else,  under  the  shadow  of  some  ordinances,  when  by 
two  months'  travel  we  might  come  to  enjoy  the  lib- 
erty of  all. 

To  your  second  question.  How  far  ministers  are 
bound  to  bear  witness  against  corruptions  cast  upon 
the  face  of  God's  ordinances,  it  is  too  large  a  point 
for  me  to  give  answer  to  in  the  heel  of  a  letter. 
But  thus  much  briefly.    Witness  is  to  be  borne  against 

^Lis.  corruptions,  1.  By  keeping  a  man's  own  garments 
clean  ;    I  mean  his  own  outward  practice.     2.  By 

Acts,    declaring  the  whole  counsel  of  God  to  his  people, 

XX. 

2G,  27.  not  shunning  any  part  of  it,  as  reasonable  occasion 
iThes.  is  offered,  to  prevent  sin  in  them.     3.  By  avoiding 

^'^~    appearances  of  evil,  as  well  as  evil   itself.     Eleazar 

durst  not  eat  mutton,  or  bread,  or  any  other  clean 

2  Mac.  fQQj^  when  it  had  an  appearance  of  eating  swine's 

^^'^^-  flesh,  but  chose  death  rather  than  deliverance  by 
such  means  ;  whose  story,  though  it  be  Apocryphal, 
yet  the  example  is  authentical,  as  being  ratified  by 
the  Apostle's  testimony  among  the  rest  of  like  na- 

xL3o.  ture,  where,  by  the  others  he  speaketh  of,  he  mean- 
eth  not  other  women,  but  other  men ;  for  the  word  is 
a)loi,  (masculine.)    Howsoever,  Peter's  dissembling 


1  Peter, 
iii.  15. 


19-21. 


FOR    COMING    TO    NEW-ENGLAND.  443 

is  evidently  blamed  by  Paul  in  a  like  case,  when  by  chap. 
his  example  he  countenanced  the   imposing  of  cere-  -1-1-1 
monies  upon  the  Gentiles,  to  whom  God  never  gave  i6  34. 
them.     4.  By  contending  for  the    truth  in    a  holy     3^^* 
manner,    when   others   contend  with  us  against  it.    cai. 

"  li. 

5.  By  giving  account  of  our  faith  before  magistrates,  '^-i^- 
if  they  call  us  to  do  it  publicly,  requiring  to  be  in-   ^^''^^> 
formed  of  our  doctrine  and  manner  of  life.     Other- 
wise, if  they  call  us  to  know  our  opinions  in  private, 
(intending   to  bring  us   into  trouble,)    or   publicly, 
rather  as  captious   questionists  than  judicial  govern- 
ors, in  such  a  case   I  suppose  we   may  conceal   our 
minds,  and  put  our   adversaries   upon  proof,  as  our   j^j^^ 
Saviour  did.  ,^0!" 

But  why  do  I  spend  time  and  w^ords  to  you  in 
these  things,  who  know  them  as  well  as  I  can  tell 
you  ?  I  rather  desire  you  may  be  kept  in  a  peacea- 
ble way  of  bearing  witness  to  the  truth,  (if  the  will 
of  God  be  such,)  than  exposed  to  hazards  by  such 
confessions  as  might  prejudice  your  liberty.  My 
poor  requests  are  to  Heaven  for  you,  as  I  desire  you 
might  not  forget  me  and  mine,  and  all  us  here. 
Now  the  God  of  peace  and  power  guide  and  support 
your  spirit  in  all  your  holy  endeavours,  bless  and 
prosper  your  labors,  and  keep  you  as  a  chosen  vessel 
in  the  shadow  of  his  hand,  through  him  that  hath 
loved  us. 

Present  my  humble  service  to  my  right  honorable 
Lord  ;^  as  also  my  dear  affection  to  Mr.  Ball,^  Mr. 
Slater,  and  all  the  brethren  with  you,  especially  to 

*  The  Earl  of  Lincoln.  Thomas,  the  former  of  whom  was  a 
'  There  were  two  Puritan   cler-  graduate  of  Oxford,   and  the  latter 
orymen   living   in  England   at   this  of  Cambridge.     Thomas  is  probably- 
time  by  the  name  of  Ball,  John  and  the  one  here  mentioned.     He  was 


444 


JOHN    COTTON  S    REASONS. 


CHAP.  Mr.  Dod,'  Mr.  Cleaver,^  Mr.  Winston,  Mr.  Cotton, 

L  with  earnest  desire  of  the  continuance  of  all  their 

16  3  4.  prayers,  with  your  own,  in  our  behalf.     So  I  rest 
^^^-  Your  very  loving  brother 

in  our  blessed  Saviour, 


Boston,  Dec.  3,  1634.= 


J.  c. 


educated  at  Queen's  College,  was  a 
fellow  of  Emmanuel,  and  was  set- 
tled in  the  ministry  at  Northampton, 
where  he  died  June  21,  1659,  aged 
69.  He  wrote  a  Life  of  Dr.  Pres- 
ton, Master  of  Emmanuel.  See 
Wood's  Athens,  ii.  670  (ed.  Bliss); 
Fuller's  Worthies,  ii.  232  ;  Neal's 
Puritans,  ii.  365  ;  Brook's  Lives  of 
the  Puritans,  ii.  440,  iii.  534. 

*  John  Dod  was  an  eminent  Pu- 
ritan divine.  He  was  born  at  Shot- 
wick,  in  Cheshire,  in  1550,  and  was 
educated  at  Jesus  College,  Cam- 
bridge, of  which  he  was  a  fellow. 
Fuller  classes  him  among  the  learn- 
ed writers  of  that  College,  and  says 
that  "  he  was  a  passive  Noncon- 
formist, an  excellent  scholar,  and  an 
exquisite  Hebrician  ;  by  nature  a 
witty,  by  industry  a  learned,  and  by 
grace  a  godly  divine  ;  successively 
minister  of  Hanwell,  in  Oxford, 
Fenny-Compton  in  Warwick,  Can- 
nons-Ashby  and  Fawsley,  in  North- 
amptonshire, though  for  a  time  si- 


lenced in  each  of  them.  He  died  in 
1645,  in  his  96th  year,  and  was  bu- 
ried at  Fawsley  ;  with  whom  the 
Old  Puritan  may  seem  to  expire, 
and  in  his  grave  to  be  interred ; 
humble,  meek,  patient,  hospitable, 
charitable,  as  in  his  censures  of,  so 
in  his  alms  to,  others."  See  Ful- 
ler's Worthies,  i.  191  ;  Fuller's  Ch. 
History,  iii.  479  ;  Fuller's  Hist,  of 
Cambridge,  p.  129  ;  Brook's  Lives 
of  the  Puritans,  iii.  1-6  ;  Neal's 
Hist,  of  the  Puritans,  iii.  322, 

'^  Perhaps  Robert  Cleaver,  who 
was  a  Puritan  minister  at  Drayton, 
in  Northamptonshire,  but  silenced 
by  arclrbisliop  Bancroft  for  Noncon- 
formity. He  and  Dod  were  joint 
authors  of  several  valuable  religious 
works.  See  Brook's  Lives  of  the 
Puritans,  iii.  6,  516. 

^  The  original  of  this  Letter  is 
preserved  among  the  Hutchinson 
manuscripts  in  the  library  of  the 
Mass.  Hist.  Society. 


EICHARD  MATHER'S  JOURNAL. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 


RICHARD    MATHER  S    JOURNAL. 


Praise  the  Lord,  0  my  soul  ;  and  all  that  is  with-  ^^j^- 
in  me,  praise  his  holy  name  !  Praise  the  Lord,  0  ^ — — ' 
my  soul,  and  forget  not  all  his  benefits  !  Yea,  let  all 
that  is  within  me,  and  all  that  is  without  me,  praise 
his  holy  name  !  And  let  every  thing  that  hath  breath 
praise  the  name  of  the  Lord  for  ever  and  ever  !  Who 
gave  unto  us,  his  poor  servants,  such  a  safe  and  com- 
fortable voyage  to  New-England ;  the  particular 
passages  whereof  were  as  followeth. 

We  came  from  Warrington^  on  Thursday,  April  icss. 
16,  and  came  to  Bristol-  on  the  Thursday  following,   ^^prii 
viz.  April   23  ;   and  had   a  very  healthful,  safe,  and 
prosperous  journey  all  the  way,  (blessed  be  the  name 
of  our  God  for  the  same,)  taking  but  easy  journeys, 
because  of  the  children  and  footmen,    despatching 

^  Warrington  is  a  market  town     and  Liverpool  by  railway.    Popula- 
in  Lancashire,  on  the  river  Mersey,     tion  in  1841,  21,901. 
77  miles  from  Birmingham,  and  20         -  Bristol  is  114  miles  west  from 
miles  equidistant  from  Manchester     London,  on  the  Avon,  and  in  1841 

had  a  population  of  140,158. 


16. 
23. 


448 


RICHARD    MATHER    AT    BRISTOL. 


^•^^jP-  a  hundred  and  nineteen  or   twenty  miles  in  seven 

days.^ 

163  5.  Coming  to  Bristol,  we  found  divers  of  the  compa- 
ny come  before  us  ;  but  some  came  not  till  after  us. 
Howbeit,  the  last  was  come  by  the  first  of  May. 
Nevertheless,   we  went  not   aboard  the  ship  until 

^^y  Saturday,  the  23d  of  May  ;  so  that  the  time  of  our 
staying  in  Bristol  was  a  month  and  two  days  ;  during 
all  which  time  we  found  friendship  and  courtesy  at 
the  hands  of  divers  godly  Christians  in  Bristol.  Yet 
our  stay  was  grievous  unto  us,  when  we  considered 
how  most  of  this  time  the  winds  were  steady,  and 
served  directly  for  us.  But  our  ship  was  not  ready ; 
so  ill  did  our  owners  deal  with  us. 

Going  aboard  the  ship  in  King  Road  the  23d  of 
May,  we  found  things  very  unready,  and  all  on 
heaps,  many  goods  being  not  stowed,  but  lying  on 
disordered  heaps  here  and  there  in  the  ship.  This 
day  there  came  aboard  the  ship  two  of  the  searchers, 
and  viewed  a  list  of  all  our  names,  ministered  the 
oath  of  Allegiance^  to  all  at  full  age,  viewed  our 
certificates  from  the  ministers  in  the  parishes  from 
whence  we  came,  approved  well  thereof,  and  gave 
us  tickets,  that  is,   licenses   under   their  hands  and 

'  Cotton  Mather  says  that  his  first  had  and  obtained,  and  they  to 
grandfather,  on  his  journey  "to  take  the  oaths  of  Supremacy  and 
Bristol,  to  take  ship  there,  was  Allegiance."  Certificates  were  to 
forced  to  change  his  apparel,  that  be  given  by  the  ministers  and  jus- 
he  might  escape  the  pursuivants,  tices  of  the  several  parishes,  that 
who  were  endeavouring  to  appre-  this  regulation  had  been  complied 
hend  him."  See  Mather's  Magna-  with.  The  principal  object  of  it 
lia,  i.  406.  seems  to  have  been  to  prevent  the 

"^  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  says,  emigration  of  Puritan  ministers  to 
"In  a  short  time,  numbers  of  peo-  New-England.  But  the  measure 
pie  of  all  sorts  flocked  thither  (to  was  wholly  ineffectual.  See  note  * 
New-England,)  in  heaps,  that  at  on  page  260 ;  Chronicles  of  Ply- 
last  it  was  specially  ordered  by  the  mouth,  note  ^  on  page  64  ;  Mass. 
King's  command,  that  none  should  Hist.  Coll.  xxvi.  80,  xxviii.  252- 
be   suffered   to   go  without   license  276. 


THE    JAMES    AT    ANCHOR    IN    KING    ROAD.  449 

seals   to  pass  the  seas,  and  cleared  the  ship,  and  so  chap. 

departed.     When  we  came  to  King  Road,  which  is  a  '■ 

spacious  harbour  of  five  or  six  miles  broad,  and  four  i^ss. 
or  five  miles  distant  from  Bristol,^  we  found  near  our     2S 
ship  another  ship  of  Bristol,  called  the  Diligence, 
bound  for  Newfoundland,  riding  at  anchor. 

The  24th,  being  the  Lord's  day,  the  wind  was  24. 
strong  in  the  morning,  and  the  ship  danced,  and 
many  of  our  women  and  some  children  were  not 
well,  but  seasick,  and  mazy  or  light  in  their  heads, 
and  could  scarce  stand  or  go  without  falling,  unless 
they  took  hold  of  something  to  uphold  them.  This 
day  Mr.  Maud^  was  exercised^  in  the  forenoon  and  I 
in  the  afternoon.     The  wind  still  easterly. 

The  25th,  we  that  were  passengers  would  fain  25. 
have  had  anchor  weighed  and  sail  set,  that  we  might 
have  been  gone.  But  the  mariners  would  insist  that 
they  could  not  stir  till  the  goods  were  stowed,  and 
the  hatches  or  deck  above  cleared,  &c.  ;  so  we  were 
forced  to  sit  still,  and  fall  in  hand  with  the  goods. 
Which  stay  was  a  greater  grief  unto  us,  because  the 
Diligence,  that  lay  within  two  or  three  stones'  cast 
of  us,  did  this  morning  go  out  in  our  sight. 

The    [26th,]    Tuesday  morning,  the  wind  being    26. 

^  Just  below  the  junction  of  the  was  "  a  good  man,  and  of  a  serious 

Avon  with  the  Severn.  spirit,  and  of  a  peaceable  and  quiet 

^  Daniel  Maude  was  educated  at  disposition."  See  Savage's  Win- 
Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge,  throp,  ii.  215  ;  Snow's  History  of 
where  he  took  the  degree  of  A.  B.  Boston,  p.  348  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
in  1606  and  of  A.  M.  in  1610.  On  xvi.  364,  xvii.  33,  xxviii.  248;  New 
the  12th  of  August,  1636,  he  was  Hamp.  Hist.  Coll.  iv.  7,  II. 
chosen  "free-school  master"  of  ^  The  same  expression  is  used  by 
Boston.  In  1642  he  became  minis-  Winthrop.  "  The  Lord's  day  fol- 
ter  of  the  church  at  Dover,  N.  H.,  lowing.  Air.  Cotton  exercised  in  the 
where  he  continued  till  his  death  in  afternoon."  "  Mr.  Phillips  exercis- 
1655.  Edwai'd  Johnson  speaks  of  ed  with  us  the  whole  day."  See 
him  as  "  godty  and  diligent  in  the  Winthrop's  Hist.  i.  110,  371. 
work,"  and  Hubbard  says  that  he 

29 


450       THE  ANGEL  GABKIEL  ALSO  IN  KING  ROAD. 

CHAP,  easterly,  and  the  deck  somewhat  cleared,  the  mari- 

XXII 

'■  ners  began  to  address   themselves  for   going.     But 

1635.  about  nine  of  the  clock,  when  they  had  taken  up  one 
2^g^  of  their  anchors,  and  were  in  a  manner  ready  to  set 
forward,  the  wind  turned  directly  against  us,  unto 
the  west  ;  so  that  we  were  forced  to  cast  anchor 
again,  and  sit  still.  This  evening  the  Diligence, 
that  went  out  the  day  before,  came  in  again,  and 
cast  anchor  about  the  place  where  she  lay  before, 
and  found  us  riding  at  anchor  where  she  left  us.  And 
another  ship,  also  bound  for  New-England,  came  unto 
us  ;  which  other  ship  was  called  the  Angel  Gabriel. 
27.  On  Wednesday,  the  wind  continuing  still  at  the 
west,  we  having  sent  some  of  our  men  ashore  to 
fetch  more  bread  and  victuals,  and  more  water  for 
the  cattle,  our  master.  Captain  Taylor,  went  aboard 
the  Angel  Gabriel,  Mr.  Maud,  Nathaniel  Wales,^ 
Barnabas  Fower,^  Thomas  Armitage,^  and  myself, 
accompanying  him.  When  we  came  there,  we  found 
divers  passengers,  and  among  them  some  loving  and 
godly  Christians,  that  were  glad  to  see  us  there. 
And  soon  after  we  were  come  aboard  there,  there 
came  three  or  four  boats,  with  more  passengers,  and 


*  Nathaniel  Wales  was   admitted  settled  in  Braintree,  and  had  fifteen 

a  freeman  Nov.  2,  1637,  at  the  same  children. 

time  with  John  Harvard,  the  found-  *  Barnabas  Fewer  settled  at  Dor- 
cr  of  the  College.  He  settled  in  Chester  with  his  minister.  He  sub- 
Dorchester,  but  removed  to  Boston  sequently  removed  to  Boston,  and 
as  early  as  1654,  where  he  died  died  there  in  1654.  His  wife's 
Dec.  4,  1661,  at  an  advanced  age.  name  was  Dinah,  who  died  Dec.  27, 
His  wife's  name  was  Susan.  He  1642  ;  after  which  he  married  a  se- 
had  three  sons,  Nathaniel,  jr.,  Tim-  cond  wife,  whose  name  was  Grace, 
othy,  and  John.  Nathaniel  remov-  By  his  first  wife  he  had  a  son  Elea- 
ed  to  Boston  with  his  father,  and  zar,  born  in  1636.  See  Blake's 
died  there  May  10,  1662.  Timothy  Annals  of  Dorchester,  p.  16. 
and  John  settled  in  Dorchester.  ^  Thomas  Armitage,  according  to 
Nathaniel,    son   of  Nathaniel,  jr.,  Lewis,  was  at  Lynn  in  1635,  and  in 

1637  removed  to  Sandwich. 


SIR    FERDINANDO    GORGES    COMES    ON    BOARD.  451 

one  wherein  came  Sir  Ferdinando  Goro-e,^  who  came  chap. 

XXII. 

to  see  the  ship  and  the  people.    When  he  was  come,  ^ — ' 
he  inquired  whether  there  were  any  people   there  i63  5. 
that  went  to  Massachusetts  Bay.     Whereupon  Mr.     27^ 
Maud  and  Barnabas  Fower  were  sent  for  to  come 
before  him.^     Who  being  come,  he  asked  Mr.  Maud 
of  his   country,  occupation,  or   calling  of  life,  &c., 
and  professed  his   good  will  to  the  people  there  in 
the  Bay,  and  promised  that,  if  he  ever  came  there, 
he  would  be  a  true  friend  unto  them. 

On  Thursday,  the  wind  being  still  at  west,  the  28. 
master  of  the  Angel  Gabriel  and  some  of  their  pas- 
sengers came  aboard  our  ship,  and  desired  to  have 
our  company,  &c.  This  day  their  cattle  came 
aboard,  and  our  master  and  some  of  the  sailors  and 
passengers  went  ashore. 

Friday  morning,  the  wind  was  south-east ;  but  29. 
our  master  and  some  of  the  mariners  being  away,  we 
could  not  set  sail.  So  being  constrained  to  ride  at 
anchor  still,  and  fearing  a  want  if  our  journey  should 
prove  long,  some  of  our  company  were  sent  by  boat 
to  Bristol  to  provide  some  more  oats  for  the  cattle, 
and  bread  and  other  provisions  for  ourselves,  which 
they  performed,  and  so  came  aboard  again  at  evening. 

Saturday,  at  morning,  the  wind  waxed  strong  at  30. 
north-west,  and  against  our  going  out  ;  and,  besides, 
our  master  and  some  of  the  sailors  were  gone  ashore 
and  not  come  aboard  again  ;  so  that  this  day  also  we 
were  constrained  to  sit  still.  In  the  afternoon  the 
wind  waxed  louder,  and  our  ship  danced  with  wind 

^  For  an  excellent  account  of  '  Mather  himself  keeps  in  the 
Gorges  see  Belknap's  Am.  Biog.  i.  background,  probably  from  fear  of 
346-393.  being  recognized  and  stopped.     See 

note  '  on  page  448. 


452  THEY    SET    SAIL    FROM    KING    ROAD. 

CHAP,  and  waves,  and  many  passengers,  especially  women, 

'■  and  some  children,  were  seasick. 

16  35.  The  second  Sabbath  on  shipboard.  The  wind 
3 if  easterly,  and  directly  for  us.  But  our  master  and 
many  of  the  sailors  being  away,  and  it  being  also  the 
Lord's  day,  there  could  be  no  going  out  that  day.  I 
was  exercised  in  the  forenoon,  and  Mr.  Maud  in  the 
afternoon. 

June  Monday,  the  wind  was  westerly,  and  against  us. 
This  day  we  sent  some  of  our  company  ashore  to 
wash  linens,  and  some  to  buy  more  hay  and  provi- 
sions. Towards  night  the  wind  grew  stronger,  and 
our  ship  danced,  and  many  of  the  passengers  were  ill 
through  casting  and  seasickness. 

2.  Tuesday,  the  wind  still  westerly.  This  day  we 
sent  some  of  our  people  ashore  to  provide  more  water 
and  hay  for  the  cattle. 

3.  Wednesday  morning,  the  wind  was  easterly,  and 
good  for  our  purpose.  But  our  master  and  many  of 
the  sailors  were  away  ;  and  those  that  were  aboard 
with  us  told  us  it  was  no  going  out  till  the  wind  was 
settled,  lest  we  should  be  forced  to  come  in  again, 
upon  change  of  wind,  as  the  Diligence  was.  This 
evening  there  came  to  anchor  in  King  Road  another 
ship  of  Bristol,  of  240  tons,  called  the  Bess,  or  Eli- 
zabeth, bound  for  Newfoundland,  as  there  had  done 
another  two  or  three  days  before,  called  the  Mary, 
which  was  also  bound  for  Newfoundland. 

4.  Thursday  morning,  the  wind  serving  for  us,  and 
our  master  and  all  the  sailors  being  come  aboard,  we 
set  sail,  and  began  our  sea  voyage,  with  glad  hearts 
that  God  had  loosed  us  from  our  long  stay  wherein 
we  had   been  holden,  and  with  hope  and  trust  that 


FORCED  TO  ANCHOR  IN  THE  CHANNEL.         453 

he  would  graciously  guide  us  to  the  end  of  our  jour-  ^^f^^^- 

ney.     We  were,  that  set  sail  together  this  morning,  

five  ships,  three  bound  for  Newfoundland,  viz.  the  i^^^- 
Diligence,  a  ship  of  150  tons,  the  Mary,  a  small  ship  4"^ 
of  80  tons,  and  the  Besse  ;  and  two  bound  for  New- 
England,  viz.  the  Angel  Gabriel,  of  240  tons,  [and] 
the  James,  of  220  tons.  And  even  at  our  setting 
out,  we  that  were  in  the  James  had  experience  of 
God's  gracious  providence  over  us,  in  that  the  Angel 
Gabriel,  hauling  home  one  of  her  anchors,  had  like, 
being  carried  by  the  force  of  the  tide,  to  have  fallen 
foul  upon  the  forepart  of  our  ship  ;  which  made  all 
the  mariners  as  well  as  passengers  greatly  afraid. 
Yet,  by  the  guidance  of  God,  and  his  care  over  us, 
she  passed  by  without  touching  so  much  as  a  cable 
or  cord  ;  and  so  we  escaped  that  danger.  This  day 
we  went  about  ten  or  twelve  leagues  afore  twelve  of 
the  clock,  and  then  the  wind  turned  to  the  west,  and 
the  tide  also  was  against  us,  so  that  we  were  forced 
to  come  to  anchor  again  in  the  channel,  between 
Wales  and  Winnyard,^  in  Somersetshire,  and  there 
we  abode  till  about  six  or  seven  of  the  clock  at  night ; 
and  then  the  tide  turning  for  us,  we  tacked  about 
with  the  tide  to  and  fro,  as  the  wind  would  suffer, 
and  gained  little,  yet  continued  all  night  till  about 
two  of  the  clock  after  midnight,  and  then  (the  tide 
turning,)  we  came  to  anchor  again. 

Friday  morning,  the  wind  still  strong  at  west,  we     5. 
tacked  about  again  with  the  tide  to  and  fro,  till  about 
one  of  the  clock  after  dinner  ;  about  which  time  the 
tide  and  wind  being  both  against  us,  we  came  to  an- 

'  There  is  no  such  place  as  Winnyard  in  Somersetshire.    It  may  possi- 
bly be  an  eiTor  for  Mmehead. 


454 


THEY    ANCHOR    OFF    LUNDY. 


CHAP,  chor  again  within  sight  of  Lundy,  about  two  leagues 
short  thereof;  which  Lundy  is  an  island  about  twenty 
leagues  short  of  the  Land's  End,  and  twenty-eight 
leagues  from  King  Road.^  This  day  many  passen- 
gers were  very  seasick,  and  ill  at  ease  through 
much  vomiting. 

This  day,  at  night,  when  the  tide  turned,  we  set  sail 
again,  and  so  came,  on  Saturday  morning,  to  anchor 
again  under  Lundy,  where  abiding,  because  the  wind 
was  strong  against  us,  some  of  us  were  desirous  to  go 
ashore  into  the  island.  And  speaking  thereof  to  our 
master,  he  was  very  willing  to  satisfy  us  therein,  and 
went  with  us  himself.     Mr.  Maude,  Mathew  Michell,^ 


*  This  island  lies  off  the  entrance 
of  the  Bristol  Channel.  It  is  high, 
rising  upwards  of  450  feet  above  the 
level  of  the  sea,  the  shores  consist- 
ing of  perpendicular  granite  cliffs. 
It  is  about  two  miles  and  three 
quarters  in  length,  and  half  a  mile 
in  breadth.  There  is  still  but  one 
farm-house  on  the  island  ;  and  live 
stock,  vegetables,  and  good  water 
may  be  obtained  from  the  shore. 
Lundy  Road  is  on  the  east  side  of 
the  island.  See  Norie's  British 
Channel  Pilot,  p.  99. 

2  The  father  of  the  Rev.  Jona- 
than Mitchell,  who  at  this  time  was 
only  eleven  years  of  age,  and  in 
1650  succeeded  Shepard  as  pastor 
of  the  church  in  Cambridge.  Mat- 
thew Mitchell  was  from  Halifax,  in 
Yorkshire.  "  All  his  family,"  says 
Mather,  "  were  visited  with  sick- 
ness the  winter  after  their  first  aiTi- 
val  at  Charlestown,  and  the  scarcity 
then  afflicting  the  country  added  to 
the  afflictions  of  their  sickness.  Re- 
moving to  the  town  of  Concord,  his 
beginnings  were  there  consumed  by 
fire,  and  some  other  losses  befell  him 
in  the  latter  end  of  that  winter. 
The  next  summer  he  removed  unto 
Saybrook,  and  the  next  spring  unto 
Weathersfield,    upon     Connecticut 


river,  by  which  he  lost  yet  more  of 
his  possessions,  and  plunged  him- 
self into  other  troubles.  Towards 
the  close  of  that  year  he  had  a  son- 
in-law  slain  by  the  Pequot  Indians  ; 
and  many  of  his  cattle  w^ere  destroy- 
ed, and  his  estate,  unto  the  value  of 
some  hundreds  of  pounds,  was  dam- 
nified. A  shallop,  which  he  sent 
unto  the  river's  mouth,  was  taken 
and  burned  by  the  Pequots,  and 
three  men  in  the  vessel  slain,  in  all 
of  whom  he  was  nearly  concerned  ; 
so  that  indeed  the  Pequot  scourge 
fell  more  on  this  family  than  on  any 
other  in  the  land.  Afterwards  there 
arose  unhappy  differences  in  the 
place  where  he  lived,  wherein  he 
met  with  many  injuries  ;  for  which 
causes  he  transferred  himself,  with 
his  interests,  unto  Stamford,  in  the 
Colony  of  New-Haven,  where  he 
died  in  1645,  about  the  55th  year 
of  his  age."  Matthew  Mitchell's 
name  is  recorded  by  Trumbull 
among  the  first  settlers  of  Stam- 
ford ;  and  Lion  Gardiner  speaks  of 
"  old  Mr.  Mitchell  "  being  with  him 
at  Saybrook  in  the  fall  of  1636,  and 
says  that  the  Indians  "  took  the 
brother  of  Mr.  Mitchell,  who  is  the 
minister  of  Cambridge,  and  roasted 
him  alive."     See  Mather's  Magna- 


THEY    LAND    ON    THE    ISLAND.  455 

George^  Kenrick,  myself,  and  some  others,  accompa-  chap. 
nying  him.    When  we  came  into  the  island,  we  found  -^ — — 
only  one  house  therein  ;   and  walking  in  it  from  side  i^^^- 
to  side  and  end  to  end,  one  of  the  house  being  with     g^ 
us,  we  found  thirty  or  forty  head  of  cattle,  about 
sixteen  or  twenty  horses   and  mares,  goats,  swine, 
geese,  &,c.,  and  fowl  and  rabbits  innumerable.     The 
island  is  seventeen  hundred  acres  of  land,  but  yields 
no  corn.     Here  we   got  some  milk,   and  fowl,  and 
cheese,  which  things  my  children  were  glad  of,  and 
so  came  aboard  again.     But  the  wind  being  strong 
against  us,  especially  towards  night,  we  rode  there 
all  night  and  the  next  day  ;  and  many  of  our  passen- 
gers were  this  evening  very  sick. 

The  third  Sabbath  on    shipboard.     This  day  the     7. 
wind  still   at  west,   against  us,  we  lay  still   under 
Lundy.     Mr.  Maude  was  exercised  in  the  forenoon, 
and  I  in  the  afternoon. 

Monday,  the  wind  still  strong  at  west.     This  day     8. 
we  sent  some  of  our  people  on  shore  to  Lundy,  to 
fetch  more  water  for  the  cattle. 

Tuesday,  the  wind  still  strong   against  us.     This     9. 
morning  the  five  ships,  being  all  weary  of  lying  at 
Lundy,  because  the  harbour  was  not  very  good,  and 
seeing  the  wind  still  contrary,  weighed  anchor  again 
and  set  sail  for  Milford  Haven, ~  which  is   fourteen 

lia,   ii.  66  ;  Morton's  Memorial,   p.  (Brookline,)  where  Ins  wife,  Amy, 

335;  Hubbard,   p.  199;    Scottow's  died  Nov.  15,  1656,  and  from  thence 

Narrative,  p.  14  ;    TrumbiiU's  Con-  to  Newton,  where  he  died  Aug.  29, 

necticut,  i.   67,   68,  79,  121,  125;  1686,  aged  82.    See  Farmer's  Gen, 

Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  vii.  47,  xxiii.  142,  Reg. 

143.  ^  Milford  Haven  is  the  only  safe 

*  I  am  not  sure  that  I  have  deci-  port  for  a  large   ship  between  the 

phered   this  word  aright.     It  may  Land's  End  and   Holyhead.     It  is 

possibly  be  John,  who  was  at  Bos-  the   most   secure    and   commodious 

ton  in    1639,    admitted    a   freeman  harbour  in  England,  and  may  be  en- 

in  1640,    removed  to  Muddy-river,  tered  without  a  pilot,  either  by  night 


456  THEY    ANCHOR    IN    MILFORD    HAVEN. 

CHAP,  leagues  from  Lundy,  and  lies  upon  Pembrokeshire, 
in  Wales,  and  came  thither  that  night.  This  day, 
as  we  came  from  Lundy  to  Milford  Haven,  the  sea 
wrought  and  was  rough,-  and  most  of  the  passengers 
were  very  sick,  worse  than  ever  before. 
10-  Wednesday,  the  wind  still  against  us,  we  lay  still 
in  Milford  Haven,  and  most  of  our  people  were  in 
good  health,  and  many  went  on  shore  into  the  coun- 
try, and  brought  more  fresh  water  for  the  cattle, 
more  fresh  victuals,  as  eggs,  loaf  bread,  fresh  fish,&c. 
which  things  our  children  were  glad  of. 
11  Thursday,  the  wind  still  against  us.  Many  went 
this  day  also  on  shore,  to  take  the  air,  view  the 
country,  &c.,  and  some  of  us  upon  business,  to  pro- 
vide more  hay  and  provisions. 

12.  Friday.  A  knight  of  the  country,  dwelling  near 
Hartford  West,^  being  aboard  the  Diligence,  sent  for 
me  to  come  to  speak  with  him.  Much  wondering  we 
had  what  should  be  the  matter,  seeing  I  never  knew 
him,  nor  he  me.  When  I  came  to  him,  he  used  me 
courteously,  invited  me  to  his  house,  wished  us  all 
good  success,  lamented  the  loss  of  them  that  stayed 
behind,  when  so  many  of  the  best  people,  for  uphold- 
ing religion,  were  removed  and  taken  away.^  The 
knight's  name  is  Sir  James  Parret. 

13.  Saturday,  wind  still  against  us. 

u.  The  fourth  Sabbath  on  shipboard.  This  day  Mr. 
Maud,  Mathew  Michel,  and  many  of  our  passengers, 

or  day,  even  with  contrary  winds,  broke,  and  one  of  the  principal  towns 

only  taking  the  tide.    In  it  the  ship-  of  South  Wales,  situated  at  one  of 

ping   of  the  whole   British  empire  the  inland  extremities  of  the  creek 

might  ride  together  in  perfect  safety,  or  bay  called  Milford  Haven.     It  is 

'  So  in  the  MS.  ;  but  the  name  seven  miles  from  Milford. 
of  the  town  is  Haverford-West.     It         ^  Sec  note  "  on  page  127. 
is  tlie  capital  of  the  county  of  Pem- 


THEY    GO    ASHORE    AT    ANGLE.  457 

and  of  the  Ano:el  Gabriel's,   went  to  a  church  on  chap. 

XXII. 

shore,  called   Nangle/  where  they  heard  two  good '- 

and  comfortable  sermons,  made  by  an  ancient,  grave  -^^^ 
minister,  living  at  Pembrooke,  whose  name  is  Mr. 
Jessop.  His  text  was  Psalm  xci.  11.  "  He  will  give 
his  angels  charge,"  &c. ;  and  his  coming  was  purpose- 
ly for  the  comfort  and  encouragement  of  us  that  went 
to  New-England.  I  was  exercised  on  shipboard  both 
ends  of  the  day,  remaining  there  for  the  help  of  the 
weaker  and  inferior  sort,  that  could  not  go  on  shore. 

Monday,  I  went  on  shore  to  Nangle,  with  my  wife  15. 
and  children,  John  Smith  and  his  wife,  and  Mary, 
Susan  Michel,^  and  divers  others.  It  was  a  fair  day, 
and  we  walked  in  the  fields,  and  at  a  house  got  some 
milk,  &c.,  wherewith  we  were  much  refreshed,  and 
came  aboard  again  at  evening. 

Tuesday,  a  rainy  day  ;   the  w^ind  still  against  us. 

Wednesday,  the  wind  still  against  us.  17. 

Thursday,  the  wind  still  against  us.  This  day,  in  ^g 
the  morning,  our  master  and  the  seamen  sent  away 
and  set  on  shore  one  of  the  seamen,  called  Jephrey 
Cornish,  who  had  fallen  out  and  been  in  quarrelling 
and  fighting  with  some  of  the  seamen.  The  main 
matter  alleged  against  him,  was  his  drunkenness,  and 
blasphemy,  and  brawling  and  cursing  in  his  drunk- 
enness. In  the  afternoon  there  came  to  the  Angel 
Gabriel  and  to  our  ship,  Mr.  Jessop,^  to  see  the 
Christians  bound  for  New-England.  He  was  a  grave 
and  godly  old  man,  one   that  had  lost  a  good  living 

^  Angle,  a  village  on  the  right  of        ^  He  was  the  father  of  Const'an- 

the  entrance  to  Milford  Haven,  so  tine  Jessop,    also  a   Nonconformist 

called  from  being,  as  it  were,  in  an-  minister.  See  Wood's  Athen.  Oxon. 

gulo,  in  a  nook.  iii.  540,  Fasti,   i.  461,  (ed.  Bhss)  ; 

^  Probably  the  wife  of  Matthew  Brook's  Lives  of  the  Puritans,  iii. 

Mitchell.  375. 


1635 
June 


458  THEY    SAIL    FROM    MILFORD    HAVEN. 

CHAP,  because  of  his    Nonconformity,   and  wished   us   all 
well  ;   and  we  were  much  refreshed  with  his  godly 
company  and  conference. 
19."        Friday,  a  foggy  morning  ;   wind  still  westerly. 

20.  Saturday,  the  wind  still  hovering  to  and  fro. 

21.  The  fifth  Sabbath  on  shipboard ;  a  fair,  cheerful 
summer  day.  This  day  I  was  exercised  both  ends 
of  the  day,  and  had  much  comfort  therein,  because 
the  fairness  of  the  day  freed  us  from  distraction,  and 
fitted  us  the  better  for  attendance.  Besides,  the  day 
was  more  comfortable  to  us  all,  in  regard  of  the 
company  of  many  godly  Christians  from  the  Angel 
Gabriel,  and  from  other  vessels  lying  in  the  harbour 
with  us  ;  who,  wanting  means  at  home,  were  glad  to 
come  to  us,  and  we  were  also  glad  of  their  company, 
and  had  all  of  us  a  very  comfortable  day,  and  were 
much  refreshed  in  the  Lord. 

22.  Monday  morning,  the  wind  serving,  with  a  strong 
gale  at  east,  we  set  sail  from  Milford  Haven,  where 
we  had  waited  for  wind  twelve  days,  and  were  car- 
ried forth  with  speedy  course,  and  about  noon  lost 
all  sight  of  land.  The  wind  being  strong,  the  sea 
was  rough  this  day,  and  most  of  our  passengers  were 
very  sick  and  ill  through  much  casting. 

Tuesday,  the  wind  still  easterly,  and  a  very  rainy 
day.  We  were  carried  forward  apace,  and  launched 
forth  a  great  way  into  the  deep.  But  our  people 
were  still  very  sick.  This  day,  at  evening,  we  lost 
sight  of  the  three  ships  bound  for  Newfoundland, 
which  had  been  in  company  with  us  from  King  Road ; 
and  our  master  thought  it  best  for  us  to  stay  for  the 
Angel  Gabriel,  being  bound  for  New-England,  as  we 
were,  rather  than  to  leave  her  and  go  with  the  other 


23 


A    PIRATICAL    LOOKING    VESSEL.  459 

three.  The  Angel  Gabriel  is  a  strong  ship,  and  well  chap. 
furnished  with  fourteen  or  sixteen  pieces  of  ordnance, 
and  therefore  our  seamen  rather  desired  her  compa- 
ny ;  but  yet  she  is  slow  in  sailing,  and  therefore  we 
went  sometimes  with  three  sails  less  than  w^e  might 
have  done,  that  so  we  might  not  overgo  her. 

Wednesday,  the  wind  still  at  east,  but  not  so  24. 
strong  as  the  other  two  days  before.  This  morning 
we  saw  abundance  of  porpoises^  leaping  and  playing 
about  our  ship  ;  and  spent  a  great  deal  of  time,  till 
two  or  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  in  pursuing 
(with  the  Angel  Gabriel,)  another  ship,  which  we  sup- 
posed to  have  been  a  Turkish  pirate,  and  to  have  ta- 
ken the  Mary.  The  ground  of  which  supposal  was, 
because  yesternight  the  Mary  was  in  our  sight,  behind 
her  fellows,  and  a  little  ship,  like  to  the  Mary,  had 
been  with  the  other  ship  this  morning  when  we  first 
espied  them.  But  the  little  ship  parted  from  the 
other,  and  we  doubted  she  had  been  the  Mary,  taken 
and  sent  away  as  a  prize  by  the  Turk ;  and  this  made 
us  more  willing  to  pursue  them.  But  not  being  able 
to  overtake  them,  we  left  pursuing,  and  turned  our 
course  again  our  own  way. 

Thursday,  the  wind  still  easterly  ;   in  the  morning   25. 
wet  and  rainy  ;  but  about  noon  a  fair,  sunshiny  day. 
Many  of  our  passengers,  that  had  been  sick  before, 
began  to  be  far  better,  and  came  with  delight  to 
walk  above,  upon  the  deck. 

Friday,  wind  at  north,  and  afterward  more  west-   ge. 
ward.     This  day  we  saw  many  porpoises  leaping  and 
running  like  about  our  ship. 

*  See  note  *  on  page  226. 


460  A    PORPOISE    CAUGHT. 

CHAP.      Saturday,  wind  still  north-west  ;  but  a  fair,  cool 

XXII.    , 

day. 

1635.       The  first  Sabbath  from  Milford  Haven,  and  the 

T 

27.  sixth  on  shipboard  ;  a  fair,  cool  day  ;  wind  north- 
28-  erly,  good  for  our  purpose.  I  was  exercised  in  the 
forenoon,  and  Mr.  Maud  in  the  afternoon.  This 
evening  we  saw  porpoises  about  the  ship,  and  some 
would  fain  have  been  striking  ;  but  others  dissuaded 
because  of  the  Sabbath  ;  and  so  it  was  let  alone. 
29,  Monday  morning,  wind  still  northerly ;  a  fair, 
cool  day.  This  morning,  about  seven  of  the  clock, 
our  seamen  struck  a  great  porpoise,  and  hauled  it 
with  ropes  into  the  ship  ;  for  bigness,  not  much  less 
than  a  hog  of  twenty  or  twenty-five  shillings  apiece, 
and  not  much  unlike  for  shape,  with  flesh  fat  and 
lean,  like  in  color  to  the  fat  and  lean  of  a  hog  ;  and 
being  opened  upon  the  deck,  had  within  his  entrails, 
as  liver,  lights,  heart,  guts,  &c.,  for  all  the  world 
like  a  swine.  The  seeing  of  him  hauled  into  the 
ship,  like  a  swine  from  the  sty  to  the  trestle,^  and 
opened  upon  the  deck  in  view  of  all  our  com- 
pany, was  wonderful  to  us  all,  and  marvellous  merry 
sport,  and  delightful  to  our  women  and  children. 
So  good  was  our  God  unto  us,  in  affording  us  the 
day  before  spiritual  refreshing  to  our  souls,  and  this 
day  morning  also  delightful  recreation  to  our  bodies, 
at  the  taking  and  opening  of  this  huge  and  strange 
fish.  In  the  afternoon  the  Angel  Gabriel  sent  their 
boat  to  our  ship,  to  see  how  we  did  ;  and  our  mas- 
ter. Captain  Taylor,  went  aboard  the  Angel,  and 
took  Mathew  Michel  and  me  along  with  him.    When 

'  Trestle,  a  Irarae  or  support  for  a  table,  made  triangular,   or  with 
three  legs. 


THE    WEATHER    FAIR    AND    HOT.  461 

we  came  thither,  we  found  their  passengers  that  had  ^"^p. 

JV.^11* 

been  seasick  now  well  recovered,  the  most  of  them,  

and  two  children   that  had  had  the  small  pox  well  \ 

^  J  line 

recovered  again.  We  were  entreated  to  stay  supper  29. 
there  with  their  master,  &c.,  and  had  good  cheer, 
mutton  boiled  and  roasted,  roasted  turkey,  good 
sack,  &c.  After  which  loving  and  courteous  enter- 
tainment, we  took  leave,  and  came  aboard  the  James 
again  at  night. 

Tuesday,  a  fair,  hot  summer  day,  but  small  wind.    30. 
This  day  w^e  saw  with  wonder  and  delight  abundance 
of  porpoises,  and   likewise  some  grampusses,  as  big 
as  an  ox,  puffing  and  spewing  up  water  as  they  went 
by  the  ship. 

Wednesday,  a  fair,  hot  summer  day  ;  but  the  wind    -^f^ 
westerly,  so  that  we  gained  little  that  day. 

Thursday,  rainy  in  the  morning,  but  in  the  after-     2. 
noon  fair  and  clear  ;  but  little  wind  all  day. 

Friday,  wind  strong  at  southward.  We  were  3. 
carried  on  apace,  after  eight  or  nine  leagues  a  watch, 
as  the  seamen  conceived  ;  (a  watch  is  four  hours,  a 
league  is  three  miles.)  This  day  some  few  of  the 
weakest  passengers  had  some  small  remembrance 
again  of  sea-qualms  and  sea-sickness. 

Saturday,  a  very  strong  wind,  but  not  much  for  us.  4. 
This  day  the  sea  was  very  rough,  and  we  saw  the 
truth  of  that  Scripture,  Psalm  107.  Some  were  very 
seasick ;  but  none  could  stand  or  go  upon  the  deck, 
because  of  the  tossing  and  tumbling  of  the  ship. 
This  day  we  lost  sight  of  the  Angel  Gabriel,  sailing 
slowly  behind  us,  and  w^e  never  saw  her  again  any 
more. 

The  second  Sabbath  from  Milford  Haven,  and  the     5. 


462  A  PLEASANT  SABBATH  ON  BOARD. 

CHAP,  seventh  on  ship.     This  day  God  was  very  gracious 

'■  unto  us,  in  giving  a  fair,  calm,  sunshiny  day,  that  we 

''^IJ^y  might  above,  upon  the  deck,  exercise  ourselves  in  his 
worship.  For  if  this  day  had  been  as  the  former  for 
wind  and  rain,  we  could  not  have  known  how  to 
have  sanctified  the  Sabbath  in  any  comfortable  man- 
ner. I  was  exercised  in  the  forenoon,  and  Mr.  Maud 
in  the  afternoon. 

6-  Monday,  wind  north  and  north-east ;  good  for  us, 
had  it  been  strong  enough  ;  but  being  but  weak,  we 
could  not  despatch  much  way.  A  fair  day,  and  our 
people  were  most  of  them  hearty  and  cheerful.  This 
morning  Mathew  Michell  and  I  spake  to  our  master, 
desiring  him  that  we  might  not  stay  for  the  Angel, 
because  we  doubted  our  hay  for  our  cattle  would  not 
hold  out,  and  many  casks  of  water  were  leaked  and 
spent.  To  which  request  he  gave  free  assent,  and 
caused  the  sailors  to  make  all  the  sail  they  possibly 
could  ;  and  so  we  went  that  day  as  the  soft  wind 
could  drive  us. 

7.  Tuesday,  a  fair  day,  but  soft  wind  at  south.     Our 

people  cheerful,  and  in  good  health. 

g^  Wednesday,  wind  westerly ;  yet  by  tacking  south- 

ward and  northward,  we  gained,  as  the  seamen  con- 
ceived, twenty  or  twenty-one  leagues. 

9.  Thursday,  a  strong  wind  at  north-west,  which 
made  the  sea  somewhat  rough.  Yet  the  passengers, 
by  the  mercy  of  God,  were  few  of  them  seasick. 
This  day  and  two  days  before  we  saw  following  the 
ship  a  little  bird  like  a  swallow,  called  a  'pitkrill^ 


'  The  Stormy  Petrel,   or  Mother     Oruitliol.  Bioof.   iii.   486  ;  Nuttall's 
Carey's    Chicken.     See    Wilson's     Ornithology,  Water  Birds,  p.  322. 
Am.  Ornithol.    vii.  90  ;  Audubon's 


FOGGY  AND  ROUGH  WEATHER.  463 

which  they  say  doth  follow  ships  against  foul  weather;  chap. 

and  we  saw  also  this  afternoon  by  the  ship  side  a 

great  grampus,  as  big  as  an  ox.  "^^^^ 

Friday,  wind  westerly,  so  that  we  could  gain  lit-     lo. 
tie.     A  fair  day,  and  our  people  generally  in  good 
health. 

Saturday,  much  like.  ii. 

The  third  Sabbath  from  Milford,  and  the  eighth  12. 
on  shipboard.  A  very  fair  day,  so  that  we  had 
liberty  to  serve  God  without  distraction  and  dis- 
turbance from  weather.  Mr.  Maud  w^as  exercised 
in  the  forenoon,  and  I  in  the  afternoon.  Wind 
southward. 

Monday,  a  foggy,  misty  day ;  but  a  good  gale  of  13. 
wind  at  south  and  by  east,  which  carried  us  apace, 
after  ten  leagues  a  watch. 

Tuesday,  also  very  foggy  and  misty.    Wind  south-    14. 
erly,  but  about  noon  became  calm. 

Wednesday,  a  strong  wind  northerly,  which  made  15. 
the  sea  rough  ;  yet  we  went  about  eight  or  nine 
leagues  a  watch.  Few  of  us  w^ere  seasick  ;  though 
a  wind  not  so  strong  and  sea  not  so  rough  would,  in 
the  beginning  of  our  journey,  have  wrought  more 
upon  us.     But  now  we  were  better  used  unto  it. 

Thursday,  a  fair  day  ;  though  the  w^ind  being  le. 
westerly,  carried  us  more  to  the  southward  than  else 
we  desired.  This  day  we  saw  with  wonder  and  de- 
light an  innumerable  multitude  of  porpoises  leaping 
and  playing  about  the  ship.  Towards  evening  the 
wind  was  little. 

Friday,  calm  in  the  morning.     But  afore  noon,  the    17. 
wind   waxed  strong  at  north,   and  so  continued  all 
day,  and  carried  us  a  good  speed  in  our  course. 


464  ABUNDANCE    OF    SEA-FOWL. 

Saturday,  wind  north-west,  a  fair,  cool  day.  We 
saw  this  morning  a  great  many  of  bonitoes  ^  leaping 
and  playing  about  the  ship.  Bonito  is  a  fish  some- 
what bigger  than  a  cod,  but  less  than  a  porpoise. 

19.  Sabbath,  a  fair  forenoon  ;  but  at  noon  the  wind 
became  stiff  westward,  which  was  against  us.  In  the 
afternoon  it  blew  so  hard  and  loud,  that  my  voice 
could  scarce  be  heard,  though  I  extended  it  to  the 
furthest  that  I  could. 

2^-  Monday,  a  foggy  and  misty  day ;  wind  about  north- 
west. We  saw  this  day  divers  dolphins  playing 
about  the  ship,  and  many  sea-fowl,  hagbats,^  and 
others. 

21.  Tuesday  morning  a  great  calm  after  a  hot  night. 
This  morning  our  seamen  took  a  bonito,  and  opened 
him  upon  the  deck  ;  of  which,  being  dressed,  our 
master  sent  Mathew  Michel  and  me  part,  as  good 
fish  in  eating  as  could  be  desired.  About  noon  the 
wind  became  north-east,  good  for  our  purpose,  so 
that  we  went  that  afternoon  nine  or  ten  leagues  a 
watch. 

22.  Wednesday,  wind  still  about  north-east,  but  not 
so  strong  as  the  day  before.  Now  we  saw  every  day 
abundance  of  sea-fowl,  as  pitterels,  hagbats,  &c. 

23.  Thursday  morning,  a  fine  gale  of  wind  at  north 
and  by  east.  Now  we  saw  this  morning  abundance 
of  porpoises  and  grampuses,  leaping,  and  spewing 
up  water  about  the  ship.  About  eight  or  nine  of  the 
clock  the  wind  blew  more  stiffly,  and  we  went  about 

'  "Or  Spanish   dolphins,   a   fish  England,  p.  7,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 

about  the  size  of  a  large  mackerel,  xxiii.  217. 

beautified  with  admirable  variety  of        -  Higginson,  in  his  Journal,  calls 

glittering    colors     in    the    water."  ihcm  hag-birds.     See  page  229. 
Josselyn's  Two  Voyages  to  New- 


ON    THE    BANK    OF    NEWFOUNDLAND.  465 

ei^ht  or  nine   leao:iies  a  watch.     Towards  evenins:,  chap. 

XXII 

our  seamen  deemed  that  w^e  w^ere  near  to  some  land,  — — '■ 
because  the  color  of  the  water  w^as  changed.     But  i^ss. 
sounding  with  a  line  of  a  hundred  and  sixty  fathom,     gsf 
they  could  find  no  bottom.    It  w^as  a  very  cold  wind, 
like  as  if  it  had  been  winter,  which  made  some  to 
w^ish  for  more  clothes. 

Friday,  wind  still  northerly,  but  very  faint.  It  24. 
was  a  great  foggy  mist,  and  exceeding  cold,  as  it  had 
been  December.  One  w^ould  have  wondered  to  have 
seen  the  innumerable  numbers  of  fowd,  w^hich  we  saw 
swimming  on  every  side  of  the  ship,^  and  mighty 
fishes  rolling  and  tumbling  in  the  waters,  twice  as 
long  and  big  as  an  ox.  In  the  afternoon  we  saw 
mighty  whales  spewing  up  water  in  the  air,  like  the 
smoke  of  a  chimney,  and  making  the  sea  about  them 
white  and  hoary,  as  it  is  said  in  Job  ;  of  such  incred- 
ible bigness  that  I  w^ill  never  wonder  that  the  body 
of  Jonas  could  be  in  the  belly  of  a  whale.  At  even- 
ing our  seamen  sounded,  and  found  ground  at  fifty 
fathom. 

Saturday  morning,  they  sounded  again,  and  found  25 
no  bottom,  conceiving  thereby  that  we  were  the  day 
before  on  Newfoundland  Bank,  on  the  end  of  it 
nearer  to  New-England.  This  day,  about  nine  of 
the  clock,  the  wind  turned  from  being  northerly,  and 
came  about  by  the  east  unto  the  south,  and  the  great 
fog  vanished  away,  and  it  became  a  clear,  sunshiny 
day.  This  day  Mathew  Michel  and  I,  taking  notice 
that  our  hay  and  water  waxed  scarce,  went  to  our 
master,  entreating  him  to  tell  us  how  far  he  conceived 

'  They  were  now  near  the  Grand  Bank  of  Newfoundland.     See  pages 
228  and  229. 

30 


Job, 
xli.  32. 


466  FOUR  PORPOISES  CAUGHT. 

CHAP.  US  to  want  of  our   journey's  end,  that  so  we  misrht 
xxir.  1  1  .  . 

~ — —  better  know  how  to  order  our  water  and  provisions 

16  35.  |-Qj.  Q^j,  cattle,  which  yet  were  all  alive  and  in  good 

25.  liking ;  and  he  thereupon  summed  up  all  the  passages 
of  our  journey  past,  and  conceived  two  hundred  and 
fifty  leagues  to  be  yet  remaining  unfinished. 

On  Friday,  in  the  evening,  we  had  an  hour  or  two 
of  marvellous  delightful  recreation,  which  also  was  a 
feast  unto  us  for  many  days  after,  while  we  fed  upon 
the  flesh  of  three  huge  porpoises,  like  to  as  many  fat 
hogs,  striked  by  our  seamen,  and  hauled  with  ropes 
into  the  ship.  The  flesh  of  them  was  good  meat, 
with  salt,  pepper  and  vinegar  ;  the  fat  like  fat  bacon, 
the  lean  like  bull-beef;  and  on  Saturday  evening 
they  took  another  also. 

26.  The  fifth  Sabbath  from  Milford  Haven,  and  the 
tenth  on  shipboard  ;  a  fair,  sunshiny  summer  day, 
and  would  have  been  very  hot,  had  not  God  allayed 
the  heat  with  a  good  gale  of  southerly  wind  ;  by  which 
also  we  were  carried  on  in  our  journey  after  seven 
leagues  a  watch.  I  was  exercised  in  the  forenoon, 
and  Mr.  Maud  in  the  afternoon.  In  the  afternoon  the 
wind  grew  stronger,  and  it  was  a  rough  night  for 
wind  and  rain,  and  some  had  our  beds  that  night  ill 
wet  with  rain  beating  in  through  the  sides  of  the 
ship. 

27.  Monday,  wind  still  strong  at  south.  This  day  we 
spent  much  time  in  filling  divers  tuns  of  emptied  cask 
with  salt  water  ;  which  was  needful,  because  much 
beer,  fresh  water,  beef,  and  other  provisions  being 
spent,  the  ship  went  not  so  well,  being  too  light  for 
want  of  ballast.  When  this  work  was  done,  we  set 
forth  more  sail,  and  went  that  evening  and  all  the 
night  following  with  good  speed  in  our  journey. 


A    LAND-BIRD    LIGHTS    ON    THE    SHIP.  467 

Tuesday  morning,  a  great  calm,  and  very  hot  all  chap. 

the  forenoon  ;    om-  people   and  cattle  being  much  

afflicted  with  faintness,  sweating,  and  heat.  But  ^^^^• 
(lo  !  the  goodness  of  our  God,)  about  noon  the  wind  28. 
blew  at  north  and  by  east,  which  called  us  from  our 
heat,  and  holp  us  forward  in  our  way.  This  after- 
noon there  came  and  light  upon  our  ship  a  little  land- 
bird,  with  blue-colored  feathers,  about  the  bigness  of 
a  sparrow  ;  by  which  some  conceived  we  were  not 
far  from  land. 

Wednesday,  not  extremely  hot,  but  a  good  gale  of  29. 
cooling  wind.     But  yet,  being  at  the  west  and  by 
north,  it  was  against  us  in  our  way  ;  so  that  we  were 
forced  to  tack  northw^ard  and  southward,  and  gained 
little. 

Thursday,  wind  still  westerly,  against  us,  all  the  so. 
forenoon.  But  about  one  of  the  clock  the  Lord  re- 
membered us  in  mercy,  and  sent  us  a  fresh  gale  at 
south  ;  which,  though  weak  and  soft,  yet  did  not 
only  much  mitigate  the  heat,  but  also  holp  us  some- 
thing forw^ard  in  our  way.  In  the  evening,  about 
sun-setting,  we  saw  with  admiration  and  delight,  in- 
numerable multitudes  of  huge  grampuses,  rolling 
and  tumbling  about  the  sides  of  the  ship,  spewing 
and  puffing  up  water  as  they  went,  and  pursuing 
great  numbers  of  bonitoes  and  lesser  fishes  ;  — so 
marvellous  to  behold  are  the  works  and  wonders  of 
the  Almighty  in  the  deep. 

Friday,  a  great  foggy  mist  all  the  forenoon,  and  si. 
the  wind  west-northwest,  which  was  against  us.  In 
the  afternoon  the  mist  vanished,  and  the  day  cleared 
up  ;  but  the  wind  still  against  us,  so  that  we  gained 
little,  being  forced  to  run  a  by-course,  viz.  north 
and  by  east,  and  at  night  to  run  southward. 


468  ABUNDANCE  OF  COD  TAKEN. 

CHAP.      Saturday  morning,  a  cool  wind   at  north,  whereby 

we  went  on  in  our  course   an  hour  or  two,  though 

^^^^-  very  slowly,  because  of  the  weakness  of  the  wind. 

1.  Afterwards  it  became  a  great  calm,  and  our  seamen 
sounded  about  one  of  the  clock,  and  found  ground  at 
sixty  fathom.^  Presently  after,  another  little  land- 
bird  came  and  light  upon  the  sails  of  the  ship.  In 
the  cool  of  the  evening,  the  calm  still  continuing, 
our  seamen  fished  with  hook  and  line,  and  took  cod 
as  fast  as  they  could  haul  them  up  into  the  ship. 

2.  The  sixth  Sabbath  from  Milford,  and  the  eleventh 
on  shipboard.  This  day  was  a  day  of  great  refresh- 
ing to  us  ;  not  only  because  of  preaching  and  pray- 
ers, which  we  enjoyed  for  the  good  of  our  souls,  but 
also  by  reason  of  abundance  of  fowl  which  we  saw 
swimming  in  the  sea,  as  a  token  of  nearness  of  land. 
Besides,  our  bodies  fed  sweetly  on  the  fresh  cod 
taken  the  day  before,  of  which  our  master  sent  Mr. 
Maud  and  me  good  store.  And  the  wind  blew  w4th 
a  cool  and  comfortable  gale  at  south  all  day,  which 
carried  us  away  with  great  speed  towards  our  jour- 
ney's end; — so  good  was  our  loving  God  unto  us, 
as  always,  so  also  this  day.  Mr.  Maud  was  exer- 
cised in  the  forenoon  and  I  in  the  afternoon. 

But  lest  we  should  grow  secure,  and  neglect  the 
Lord  through  abundance  of  prosperity,  our  wise  and 
3-  loving  God  was  pleased  on  Monday  morning,  about 
three  of  the  clock,  when  we  were  upon  the  coast  of 
land,  to  exercise  us  with  a  sore  storm  and  tempest 
of  wind  and  rain  ;  so  that  many  of  us  passengers, 
with  wind  and  rain  were  raised  out  of  our  beds,  and 
our  seamen  were  forced  to  let  down  all   the  sails  ; 

'  See  note  ^  un  page  229. 


FOGS    AND    CALMS.  469 

and   the  ship  was  so  tossed  with  fearful  mountains  chap. 

and  valleys  of  water,  as  if  we  should  have  been  over 

whelmed  and  swallowed  up.  But  this  lasted  not  i^^^- 
long  ;  for  at  our  poor  prayers  the  Lord  was  pleased  sf ' 
to  magnify  his  mercy  in  assuaging  the  winds  and  seas 
again  about  sunrising.  But  the  wind  was  become 
west,  against  us,  so  that  we  floated  upon  the  coast, 
making  no  despatch  of  way  all  that  day  and  the  night 
following.  And  besides,  there  was  a  great  fog  and 
mist  all  that  day,  so  that  we  could  not  see  to  make 
land,  but  kept  in  all  sail  and  lay  still,  rather  losing 
than  gaining,  but  taking  abundance  of  cod  and  hali- 
but, wherewith  our  bodies  were  abundantly  refresh- 
ed after  they  had  been  tossed  with  the  storm. 

Tuesday,  the  fog  continued  still  all  the  forenoon.  4. 
About  noon,  the  day  cleared  up,  and  the  wind  blew 
with  a  soft  gale  at  south,  and  we  set  sail  again,  go- 
ing on  in  our  course,  though  very  slowly,  because  of 
the  smallness  of  the  wind.  At  night  it  was  a  calm, 
and  abundance  of  rain. 

Wednesday  morning,  we  had  a  little  wind  at  north,  5. 
but  a  foggy  forenoon.  In  the  afternoon,  the  day 
somewhat  cleared  ;  but  it  became  a  calm  again. 
Thus  the  Lord  was  pleased,  with  foggy  mists  and 
want  of  winds,  to  exercise  our  patience  and  waiting 
upon  his  good  leisure,  still  keeping  us  from  sight  of 
land,  when  our  seamen  conceived  us  to  be  upon  the 
coast.  This  day,  in  the  afternoon,  we  saw  multi- 
tudes of  great  whales  ;  which  now  was  grown  ordi- 
nary and  usual  to  behold. 

Thursday,  a  foggy  morning ;   afterward  a  very  hot     6. 
day,  and  great  calm,  so  that  we  could  make  no  way, 
but  lay  still,  floating  upon  the  coast,  and  could  not 
come  to  any  sight  of  land. 


470  FIRST    SIGHT    OF    LAND. 

Friday  morning,  a  great  fog  still,  and  a  slender 
soft  wind  at  west-southwest.  In  the  afternoon  the 
wind  wakened,  and  we  went  forward  with  good 
speed,  though  too  far  northward,  because  the  wind 
was  so  much  on  the  west. 

Saturday  morning,  we  had  a  good  gale  of  wund  at 
west-southwest  ;  and  this  morning  our  seamen  took 
abundance  of  mackerel  ;^  and  about  eight  of  the  clock 
we  all  had  a  clear  and  comfortable  sight  of  America, 
and  made  land  again  at  an  island  called  Menhiggin,^ 
an  island  without  inhabitants,  about  thirty-nine 
leagues  northward  or  northeast  short  of  Cape  Ann. 
A  little  from  this  island  we  saw,  more  northward, 
divers  other  islands,  called  St.  George  Islands,^  and 
the  main  land  of  New-England  all  along,  northward 
and  eastward,  as  we  sailed.  This  mercy  of  our  God 
we  had  cause  more  highly  to  esteem  of,  because 
when  we  first  saw  land  this  morning,  there  was  a 
great  fog,  and  afterward,  when  the  day  cleared  up,  we 
saw  many  rocks  and  islands  almost  on  every  side  us, 
as  Menhiggin,  St.  George  Islands,  Pemmaquid,  &c. 
Yet,  in  the  midst  of  these  dangers  our  God  preserv- 
ed us  ;  though,  because  of  the  thick  fog,  we  could 
not  see  far  about  us  to  look  unto  ourselves.  In 
the  afternoon,  the  wind  continuing  still  westward, 
against  us,  we  lay  off  again  to  the  sea  southward, 
and  our  seamen  and  many  passengers  delighted 
themselves  in  taking  abundance  of  mackerel. 


'  See  note  ^  on  page  232.  ber,  on  the  coast  of  Maine,  situated 

*  See    Chronicles  of  Plymouth,  about   the  mouth   of  St.  George's 

note  ■•  on  p.  182,  and  Williamson's  river   eastwardly,   and  on  the   east 

History  of  Maine,  i.  61 .  margin  of  Broad  or  Muscongus  Bay. 

^  St.  George's  Islands  are  a  clus-  See  them  described  in  Williamson, 

t(^i  of  islands,  about  twenty  in  num-  i.  59,  60, 


THEY    ANCHOR    AT    RICHMOND'S    ISLAND.  ^  471 

The  seventh  Sabbath  from  Milford,  and  the  twelfth  chap. 

on  shipboard.     This  day  was  a  fair,  clear,  and  com '- 

fortable  day,  though  the  wind  was  directly  against  i^^^- 
us,  so  that  we  were  forced   to   tack   to  and   again,      gT 
southward  and  northward,   gaining   little,  but  were 
all  day  still  in  sight  of  land.     Mr.  Maud  in  the  fore- 
noon ;   I  in  the  afternoon. 

Monday  morning,  the  wind  still  continuing  against  lo. 
us,  we  came  to  anchor  at  Richmond's  Island,^  in  the 
east  part  of  New-England  ;  the  Bay  of  Massachu- 
setts, whither  we  w^ere  bound,  lying  thirty  leagues 
distant  from  us  to  the  west.  Our  seamen  were  will- 
ing here  to  cast  anchor,  partly  because  the  wind  was 
against  us,  and  partly  because  of  necessity  they  must 
come  to  anchor  to  take  in  a  pilot  somewhere  before 
we  came  to  the  Bay,  by  reason  that  our  pilot  knew 
the  harbours  no  further  but  to  the  Isle  of  Shoals. 
When  we  came  within  sight  of  the  island,  the  planters 
there,  (or  rather  fishers,  for  their  chief  employment 
was  fishing,)  being  but  two  families,  and  about  forty 
persons,  were  sore  afraid  of  us,  doubting  lest  we  had 
been  French,  come  to  pillage  the  island,  as  Penob- 
scots  had  been  served  by  them  about  ten  days  before.^ 

*  Richmond's  (or  Richman's)  Isl-  goods,  and  gave  them  bills  for  them, 
and  is  on  the  coast  of  Maine,  near  and  bade  them  tell  all  the  plantations 
Cape  Elizabeth.  It  is  three  miles  they  would  come  with  eight  ships 
in  circumference,  and  is  only  half  a  next  year  and  displant  them  all.  But, 
mile  from  the  main  ;  the  strait  being  by  a  letter  which  the  captain  wrote 
fordable  at  low  water.  This  island  to  the  Governor  of  Plymouth,  it  ap- 
is frequently  mentioned  in  the  early  peared  that  they  had  commission  from 
history  of  the  country  See  Wil-  Mons.  Rossillon,  commander  at  the 
liamson's  Maine,  i.  30.  fort   near   Cape  Breton,    called  La 

''"At  this  time  (Aug.  1635,)"  Heve,  to  displant  the  English  as  far 
says  Winthrop,  "  a  French  ship  as  Pemaquid  ;  and  by  it  they  pro- 
came  with  commission  from  the  fessed  all  courtesy  to  us  here."  See 
king  of  France,  (as  they  pretended,)  Winthrop,  i.  166  ;  Hubbard,  p.  161; 
and  took  Penobscott,  a  Plymouth  Williamson's  Maine,  i.  262  ;  Hutch- 
trarling  house,  and  sent  away  the  inson's  Mass.  i.  46  ;  Holmes's  An- 
men  which  were  in  it,  but  kept  their  nals,  i.  230. 


472  THEY    SAIL    ALONG    THE    COAST. 

CHAP.  When  we  were  come  to  anchor,  and  their  fear  was 

XXII. 

past,  they  came  some  of  them   aboard  to  us  in  their 

*^^^-  shallops,  and  we  went  some  of  us  ashore  into  the  isl- 
i(f  ■   and,  to  look  for  fresh  water  and  grass  for  our  cattle ; 
and  the  planters  bade  us  welcome,  and  gave  some  of 
us  courteous  entertainment  in  their  houses. 

11.  Tuesday,  we  lay  still  at  anchor  at  Richmond's 
Island,  the  wind  being  still  against  us. 

12.  Wednesday  morning,  the  wind  serving  with  a 
fresh  gale  at  north  and  by  east,  we  set  sail  from 
Richmond's  Island  for  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  went 
along  the  coast  by  Cape  Porpus,^  still  within  sight  of 
land.  This  day  the  wind  was  soft  and  gentle  ;  and 
as  we  went  along,  our  seamen  and  passengers  took 
abundance  of  mackerel.  Towards  night  it  became  a 
calm,  so  that  then  we  could  despatch  little  way. 

13.  Thursday  morning,  the  wind  was  against  us,  at 
south-southwest,  and  so  had  been  all  night  before, 
so  that  we  tacked  to  and  fro,  gaining  little,  but  con- 
tinuing on  the  coast  towards  Cape  Ann,  within  sight 
of  land  for  the  most  part,  passing  by  Boon  Islands,^ 
Agamenticus,^  &c.  This  evening  our  seamen  desir- 
ed to  have  anchored  at  Hog  Island,^  or  the  Isle  of 
Shoals,  being  seven  leagues  short  of  Cape  Ann,  and 
thirteen  or  fourteen  leagues  from  the  Isle  of  Rich- 
mond. But  the  wind  being  strong  at  south-south- 
west, they  could  not  attain  their  purpose,  and  so 
were  forced  to  lie  off  again  to  sea  all  night. 

'  Cape  Porpoise  is  near  Kenne-  hour.     It  is  a  noted  landmark  for 

bunk  harbour.  mariners,  being  the  first  height  seen 

*  Boon  Island  is  an  island  of  rocks  by  them  from  the  sea.     See  Wil- 

a  quarter  of  a  mile  in  length,  situa-  liamson's  Maine,  i.  96,  231. 

ted  six  or  seven  miles  southeast  from  *  Hog  island  is  the  largest  of  the 

York  harbour.  Isles   of  Shoals,    containing   about 

^  This   mountain   is  about   eight  350  acres, 
miles  northwesterly  from  York  bar- 


THEY    ANCHOR    AT    THE    ISLES    OF    SHOALS.  473 

Friday  morning,   the  wind  was  strong  at  south-  chap. 

southwest,  and  so   Continued  till   towards   evening,  

and  then  was  somewhat  milder.    This  day  we  tacked  ^^^^• 
to  and  again  all  day,  one  while  west  and  by  north     14.' 
towards  Isles  of  Shoals,  another  while  east-southeast 
to  sea  again;  Cape  Ann,  whither  our  way  was,  lying 
from  us  south-southwest,  directly  in  the  eye  of  the 
wind,  so  that  we  could  not  come  near  unto  it.     But 
this  evening,  by  moonlight,  about  ten  of  the  clock, 
we  came  to  anchor  at  the  Isles  of  Shoals,^  which  are    • 
seven  or  eight  islands  and  other  great  rocks,  and 
there  slept  sweetly  that  night  till  break  of  day. 

But  yet  the  Lord  had  not  done  with  us,  nor  yet 
had  let  us  see  all  his  power  and  goodness,  which  he 
would  have  us  to  take  knowledge  of;  and  therefore, 
on  Saturday  morning,  about  break  of  day,  the  Lord  15. 
sent  forth  a  most  terrible  storm  of  rain  and  easterly 
wind,  whereby  we  were  in  as  much  danger  as,  I 
think,  ever  people  were.  For  we  lost  in  that  morn- 
ing three  great  anchors  and  cables  ;  of  which  cables 
one,  having  cost  <£50,  never  had  been  in  any  water 
before  ;  two  were  broken  by  the  violence  of  the 
waves,  and  the  third  cut  by  the  seamen  in  extremity 
and  distress,  to  save  the  ship  and  their  and  our  lives. 
And  when  our  cables  and  anchors  were  all  lost,  we 
had  no  outward  means  of  deliverance  but  by  loosing 
sail,  if  so  be  we  might  get  to  the  sea  from  amongst 
the  islands  and  rocks  where  we  anchored.  But  the 
Lord  let  us  see  that  our  sails  could  not  save  us 
neither,  no  more  than  our  cables  and  anchors.  For, 
by  the  force  of  the  wind  and  rain,  the  sails  were  rent 

'  See  a  topographical  and  histor-     Mass.    Hist.    ColL    vii.    242-261; 
ical   account    of   these    islands    in     Williamson's  Maine,  i.  23. 


474  A    TERRIBLE    STORM. 

ci^AP.  in  sunder  and  split  in  pieces,  as  if  they  had  been  but 

rotten  rags,  so  that  of  the  foresail  and  spritsail  there 

163  5.  ^y^g  scarce  left  so  much  as  a  hand-breadth  that  was 
15.'  not  rent  in  pieces  and  blown  away  into  the  sea.  So 
that  at  this  time  all  hope  that  we  should  be  saved,  in 
regard  of  any  outward  appearance,  was  utterly  taken 
away  ;  and  the  rather,  because  we  seemed  to  drive 
with  full  force  of  wind  and  rain  directly  upon  a 
mighty  rock,^  standing  out  in  sight  above  the  water  ; 
so  that  we  did  but  continually  wait  when  we  should 
hear  and  feel  the  doleful  rushing  and  crashing  of  the 
ship  upon  the  rock.  In  this  extremity  and  appear- 
ance of  death,  as  distress  and  distraction  would  suffer 
us,  we  cried  unto  the  Lord,  and  he  was  pleased  to 
have  compassion  and  pity  upon  us  ;  for  by  his  over- 
ruling providence  and  his  own  immediate  good  hand, 
he  guided  the  ship  past  the  rock,  assuaged  the  vio- 
lence of  the  sea  and  of  the  wind  and  rain,  and  gave 
us  a  little  respite  to  fit  the  ship  with  other  sails,  and 
sent  us  a  fresh  gale  of  wind  at  [blank],  by  which  we 
went  on  that  day  in  our  course  south-west  and  by 
west  towards  Cape  Ann.  It  was  a  day  much  to  be 
remembered,  because  on  that  day  the  Lord  granted 
us  as  wonderful  a  deliverance  as,  I  think,  ever  peo- 
ple had,  out  of  as  apparent  danger  as  I  think  ever 
people  felt.  I  am  sure  our  seamen  confessed  they 
never  knew  the  like."  The  Lord  so  imprint  the  me- 
mory of  it  on  our  hearts,  that  we  may  be  the  better 
for  it,  and  be  more  careful  to  please  him  and  to  walk 
uprightly  before  him  as  long  as  we  live  ;   and  I  hope 

'  At  Piscataqua,  says  Winthrop,  ton's  Memorial,   p.  179  ;  Hubbard, 

i.  165.  pp.    199-201  ;  Mather's   Magnalia, 

"  For  a  further  account  of  this  i.  406  ;  Scottow's  Narrative,  p.  14. 
storm,  see  Winthrop,  i.  164  ;  Mor- 


CASUALTIES    ON    BOARD.  475 

we  shall  not  forget  the  passages  of  that  morning  until  ^-^^p- 
our  dying  day.  

In  the  storm,  one  Mr.  Willett/  of  New  Plymouth,  ^^^^• 
and  other  three  men  with  him,  having  been  turned  15^" 
out  of  all  their  havings  at  Penobscot  about  a  fortnight 
before,^  and  coming  along  with  us  in  our  ship  from 
Richmond's  Island,  with  his  boat  and  goods  in  it 
made  fast  at  the  stern  of  our  ship,  lost  his  boat  with 
all  that  was  therein,  the  violence  of  the  waves  break- 
ing the  boat  in  pieces,  and  sinking  the  bottom  of  it 
into  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  And  Richard  Becon, 
lending  his  help  to  the  seamen  at  the  hauling  of  a 
cable,  had  the  cable  catched  about  his  arm,  whereby 
his  arm  was  crushed  in  pieces,  and  his  right  hand 
pulled  away,  and  himself  brought  into  doleful  and 
grievous  pain  and  misery. 

But  in  all  this  grievous  storm,  my  fear  was  the 
less,  when  I  considered  the  clearness  of  my  calling 
from  God  this  way  ;^  and  in  some  measure  (the 
Lord's  holy  name  be  blessed  for  it,)  he  gave  us 
hearts  contented  and  willing  that  he  should  do  with 
us  and  ours  what  he  pleased,  and  what  might  be 
most  for  the  glory  of  his  name  ;  and  in  that  we  rest- 
ed ourselves.  But  Avhen  news  was  brought  unto  us 
into  the  gunroom,  that  the  danger  was  past,  0  how 
our  hearts  did  then  relent  and  melt  within  us  !  and 
how  we  burst  out  into  tears  of  joy  amongst  ourselves, 
in  love  unto  our  gracious  God,  and  admiration  of  his 

*  Thomas  Willett  was  an  Assist-  Island,  Aug.  4,  1674,  aged  64.    See 

ant  of  Pljinouth  Colony  from  1651  Morton's  Memorial,  pp.  '250,  304  ; 

to    1664,   fourteen  years.      Farmer  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xiv.  100,  293. 

says  he  was  the  first  mayor  of  New  ^  See  page  471. 

York  after   its   conquest  from   the  ^  That   is,    his   call    to   come  to 

Dutch  by  the  English  in   1664,  and  New-England, 
that  he  died  at  Barrington,  in  Rhode 


476  THEY    ARTIIVE    IN    BOSTON    HARBOUR. 

CHAP,  kindness,  in  granting  to  his  poor  servants  such  an 

' — —  extraordinary  and  miraculous  deliverance  !   His  holy 

1635.  name  be  blessed  forever  ! 

Aug.  'Yli'is  day  we  went  on  towards  Cape  Ann,  as  the 
wind  would  suffer,  and  our  poor  sails  further,  and 
came  within  sight  thereof  the  other  ^  morning  ;  which 
16.  Sabbath,  being  the  thirteenth  we  kept  on  shipboard, 
was  a  marvellous  pleasant  day,  for  a  fresh  gale  of 
wind,  and  clear  sunshiny  weather.  This  day  we 
went  directly  before  the  wind,  and  had  delight  all 
along  the  coast,  as  we  went,  in  viewing  Cape  Ann, 
the  Bay  of  Saugust,  the  Bay  of  Salem,  Marvil  head, 
Pullin  Point,"  and  other  places  ;  and  came  to  anchor, 
at  low  tide,  in  the  evening,  at  Nantascot,  in  a  most 
pleasant  harbour,  like  to  which  I  had  never  seen, 
amongst  a  great  many  of  islands  on  every  side.  I 
was  exercised  on  shipboard  both  ends  of  the  day. 
After  the  evening's  exercise,  when  it  was  flowing  tide 
again,  we  set  sail  again,  and  came  that  night  to  an- 
chor again  before  Boston,  and  so  rested  that  night 
with  glad  and  thankful  hearts  that  God  had  put  an 
end  to  our  long  journey,  being  a  thousand  leagues, 
that  is,  three  thousand  miles  English,  over  one  of 
the  greatest  seas  in  the  world. ^ 

Now  this  our  journey,  by  the  goodness  of  our  God, 
was  very  prosperous  unto  us,  every  manner  of  way. 
First  of  all,  it  was  very  safe,  and  healthful  to  us  ;  for 
though  we  were  in  the  ship  a  hundred  passengers,^ 
besides  twenty-three  seamen,  and  twenty-three  cows 
and  heifers,   three  sucking  calves,  and  eight  mares, 

'  That  is,  the  next   morning  ;  a  tlie  same  words  in  his  Journal.    See 

peculiar  use  of  the  word.  l>'iSfi  235. 

"^  See  page  405-410.  •*  Winthrop,  i.  164,  adds,  "  hon- 

^  Higginson  uses  almost  precisely  est  people  of  Yorkshire." 


THE  VOYAGE  SAFE  AND  HEALTHFUL.  477 

yet  not  one  of  all  these  died  by  the  way,  neither  chap. 

person  nor  cattle,  but   came  all   alive  to  land,  and -' 

many  of  the  cattle  in  better  liking  than  when  we  first  1635. 
entered  the  ship  ;  and  most  of  the  passengers  in  as  ''' 
good  health  as  ever,  and  none  better  than  mine  own 
family ;  and  my  weak  wife,^  and  little  Joseph,^  as 
well  as  any  other.  Fevers,  calentures,  small  pox, 
and  such  diseases  as  have  afflicted  other  passengers, 
the  Lord  kept  from  among  us,  and  put  upon  us  no 
grief  in  our  bodies,  but  a  little  seasickness  in  the 
beginning  of  the  voyage  ;  saving  that  two  or  three 
seamen  had  the  flux,  and  Richard  Becon  lost  his 
right  hand  in  the  last  storm,  and  one  woman,  and  a 
little  child  of  hers,  towards  the  end  of  the  journey, 
had  the  scurvy.  The  means  of  which  infirmity  in 
her  we  all  conceived  to  be  the  want  of  walking  and 
stirring  of  her  body  upon  the  deck  ;  her  manner  be- 
ing to  sit  much,  between  the  decks,  upon  her  bed. 
And  a  special  means  of  the  healthfulness  of  the  pas- 
sengers, by  the  blessing  of  God,  we  all  conceived  to 
be  much  walking  in  the  open  air,  and  the  comforta- 
ble variety  of  our  food.  For  seeing  we  were  not 
tied  to  the  ship's  diet,  but  did  victual  ourselves,  we 
had  no  want  of  good  and  wholesome  beer  and  bread ; 
and  as  our  land  stomachs  grew  weary  of  ship  diet,  of 
salt  fish  and  salt  beef,  and  the  like,  we  had  liberty  to 
change  for  other  food,  which  might  sort  better  with 
our  healths  and  stomachs  ;  and  therefore  sometimes 
we  used  bacon  and  buttered  pease,   sometimes  but- 


*  Sept.  29,  1624,  he  married  Ka-  ried  the  widow  of  John  Cotton,  Aug. 

tharine,  daughter  of  Edmund  Holt,  26,   1656. 

Esq.,   of  Bury   in   Lancashire,  by  ^  Joseph  was  the  fourth  son,  and 

whom  he  had  six  children,  all  sons,  the  last  born  in  England. 
She  died  in  Feb.  1655,  and  he  mar- 


478  TWO    VESSELS    LOST. 

CHAP,  tered  bag-pudding,  made  with  currants  and  raisins  ; 

and  sometimes  drinked  pottage  of  beer  and  oatmeal, 

1^^^'  and  sometimes  water  pottage,  well  buttered. 
"^'  And  though  we  had  two  storms  by  the  way,  the 
one  upon  Monday,  the  3d  of  August,  the  other  on 
Saturday,  the  15th  of  the  same,  yet  our  gracious 
God  (blessed  and  forever  blessed  be  his  name  !)  did 
save  us  all  alive  in  them  both,  and  speedily  assuaged 
them  again.  Indeed,  the  latter  of  them  was  very 
terrible  and  grievous;  insomuch,  that  when  we  came 
to  land,  we  found  many  mighty  trees  rent  in  pieces 
in  the  midst  of  the  bole,  and  others  turned  up  by  the 
roots,  by  the  fierceness  thereof.^  And  a  bark  going 
from  the  Bay  to  Marvil  head,  with  planters  and  sea- 
men therein,  to  the  number  of  about  twenty-three, 
was  cast  away  in  the  storm,  and  all  the  people  there- 
in perished,  except  one  man^  and  his  wife,  that  were 
spared  to  report  the  news.  And  the  Angel  Gabriel, 
being  then  at  anchor  at  Pemmaquid,  was  burst  in 
pieces  and  cast  away  in  this  storm,  and  most  of  the 
cattle  and  other  goods,  with  one  seaman  and  three 
or  four  passengers,  did  also  perish  therein,  besides 
two  of  the  passengers  that  died  by  the  way,  the  rest 
having  their  lives  given  them  for  a  prey.^  But  the 
James,  and  we  that  were  therein,  with  our  cattle 


*  Morton,   describing  the   effects  Narrative  of  the  Shipwreck  in  the 

of  this  storm  in  his  New-England's  next  chapter. 

Memorial,    p.  180,   says,   "  It  blew  ^  Scottow   says   that    "the  ship 

down  many    hundred  thousands  of  and  whole  cargo  perished,  but  not 

trees,   turning  up   the  stronger  by  one  soul  of  seamen  or  passengers 

the   roots,    and   breaking   the   high  miscarried."    Hubbard  too  declares, 

pine  trees,    and  such  like,    in   the  that  "  the  passengers  were  all  pre- 

midst ;  and   the   tall    young    oaks,  served      alive,    losing     only    their 

and  walnut  trees  of  good  bigness,  goods."     Yet  Mather  probably  has 

were  wound  as  a  withe  by  it,  very  the  truth.     See  Winthrop,   i.   165  ; 

strange  and  fearful  to  behold."  Scottow,  p.  14  ;  Hubbard,  p.  199. 

"^  Anthony   Thacher.       See    his 


THE    VOYAGE    PLEASANT    AND    COMFORTABLE.  479 

and  goods,  were  all  preserved   alive.     The  Lord's  chap. 
name  be  blessed  forever  !  ■' 

Secondly,  it  was  very  delightful,  while  we  took  i^^s. 
pleasure  and  instruction  in  beholding  the  works  and 
wonders  of  the  Almighty  in  the  deep  ;  the  sea  some- 
times being  rough  with  mighty  mountains  and  deep 
valleys,  sometimes  again  plain  and  smooth  like  a 
level  meadow,  and  sometimes  painted  with  variety 
of  yellow  weeds. ^  Besides  it  was  a  pleasant  thing 
to  behold  the  variety  of  fowls  and  mighty  fishes, 
swimming  and  living  in  the  waters. 

Thirdly,  it  was  comfortable  to  us,  by  means  of  the 
fellowship  of  divers  godly  Christians  in  the  ship,  and 
by  means  of  our  constant  serving  God  morning  and 
evening  every  day,  the  daily  duties  being  performed 
one  day  by  Mr.  Maud,  another  by  myself,  and  the 
Sabbath's  exercises  divided,  (for  the  most  part,) 
equally  betwixt  us  too. 

True  it  is,  our  journey  was  somewhat  long.  For 
though  from  Monday,  the  22d  of  June,  when  we  lost 
sight  of  our  Old  English  coast,  until  Saturday,  the 
8th  of  August,  when  we  made  land  again,  at  Men- 
higgin,  it  was  but  six  weeks  and  five  days,  yet  from 
our  first  entering  the  ship  in  King  Road,  on  Satur- 
day, the  23d  of  May,  till  our  landing  at  Boston, 
in  New-England,  on  Monday,  the  17th  of  August,  it 
was  twelve  weeks  and  two  days.  For  we  lay  at  an- 
chor in  King  Road  eleven  days,  before  we  ever  set 
sail,  and  three  days  at  Lundy,  and  twelve  days  at 
Milford,  and  spent  three  days  in  tacking  between 
King  Road  and  Lundy,  one  day  between  Lundy  and 

•  Higginson  also  mentions  these  yellow  flowers.     See  pp.  232,  233, 


480 


RICHAED   MATHER,  OF    DORCHESTER. 


CHAP.  Milford,   and  eight   days   between   Menhiggin   and 


XXII 

1635 

Aug. 


Boston.  Nevertheless,  our  God  preserved  us  all 
the  while,  and  we  had  opportunity  by  these  often 
delays  to  take  in  more  hay,  oats,  and  fresh  water, 
and  arrived  in  a  good  condition.  Again  let  our  gra- 
cious God  be  blessed  forevermore  !     Amen.^ 


*  Richard  Mather,  the  writer 
of  the  preceding:  Journal,  and  the 
progenitor  of  all  the  Mathers  in 
New-England,  was  horn  in  1596,  at 
the  village  of  Lowton,  in  the  parish 
of  Winwick,  two  miles  from  War- 
rington, in  Lancashire.  His  pa- 
rents, Thomas  and  Margaret  Ma- 
ther, were  of  ancient  families  in  that 
village,  hut  in  reduced  circumstances. 
So  great  was  his  proficiency  in  his 
studies  at  Winwick  School,  that  in 
1611,  at  the  early  age  of  fifteen,  he 
was  invited  to  take  charge  of  a  pub- 
lic school  at  Toxteth  Park,  near 
Liverpool.  Having  spent  seven 
years  in  this  occupation,  and  fitted 
several  scholars  for  the  University, 
he  removed  there  himself,  and  was 
entered  a  student  of  Brazen  Nose 
College,  May  9,  1618,  at  the  age  of 
22.  But  he  had  been  here  but  a 
few  months  before  he  was  invited  by 
the  people  of  Toxteth  to  return  and 
become  their  minister.  This  invita- 
tion he  accepted,  preached  his  first 
sermon  Nov.  30,  1618,  and  was  soon 
after  ordained  by  Dr.  Morton,  Bish- 
op of  Chester.  After  his  marriage 
in  1624,  he  removed  his  habitation 
to  Much-Woolton,  three  miles  from 
Toxteth,  but  continued  to  preach  at 
Toxteth.  Having  thus  spent  fifteen 
years,  he  was  suspended  from  his 
ministry  in  August,  1633,  for  Non- 
conformity to  the  ceremonies,  but  in 
November  following  was  restored 
through  the  intercession  of  some 
gentlemen  in  Lancashire.  This  re- 
stored liberty,  however,  continued 
not  long  ;  for  in  1634,  Neal,  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  sent  his  visitors  into 
Lancashire,  who  suspended  Mr.  Ma- 
ther again,  chiefly  for  not  wearing 
the  surplice.     Being  thus  silenced, 


and  seeing  no  chance  of  resuming 
his  ministry,  and  apprehending  fur- 
ther persecution,  he  meditated  a  re- 
moval to  New-England ;  and  he 
was  confirmed  in  this  purpose  by 
urgent  letters  received  from  Cotton 
and  Hooker.  On  his  arrival,  he 
remained  for  some  months  in  Bos- 
ton, and  was  admitted  to  the  church 
there  Oct.  25,  1635,  with  his  wife, 
and  Daniel  Maud,  his  fellow-passen- 
ger. He  immediately  received  in- 
vitations to  settle  at  Plymouth ,  Rox- 
bury,  and  Dorchester.  By  the  ad- 
vice of  his  friends  Cotton  and  Hook- 
er, he  chose  the  last  place,  where  a 
new  church  was  formed  Aug.  23, 
1636,  (the  former  church,  with  its 
pastor,  Mr.  Warham,  having  re- 
moved to  Windsor,  in  Connecticut,) 
and  he  was  ordained  their  teacher. 
Here  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his 
days,  and  died  April  22,  1669,  in 
the  73d  year  of  his  age,  and  was  bu- 
ried in  Dorchester  hurying-ground. 
Of  six  sons,  all  by  his  first  wdfe, 
four,  Samuel,  Timothy,  Nathaniel, 
and  Joseph,  were  born  in  England, 
and  two,  Eleazar  and  Increase,  in 
New-England.  Four  of  them  were 
settled  in  the  ministry, —  Eleazar  at 
Northampton ,  in  Massachusetts  ; 
Samuel  at  Dublin,  in  Ireland  ;  Na- 
thaniel at  Barnstable  in  Devonshire, 
at  Rotterdam  in  Holland,  and  in 
London  ;  and  Increase,  President  of 
Harvard  College  and  father  of  Cot- 
ton Mather,  in  Boston.  Richard 
Mather  had  begun  a  Memoir  of  him- 
self, which  he  had  brought  dowm  to 
the  39th  year  of  his  age,  being  the 
year  in  which  he  came  to  New-Eng- 
land, but  left  it  unfinished.  It  was 
never  printed,  and  is  probably  lost. 
Extracts  from  it  are  contained  in  his 


RICHARD    MATHER,  OF    DORCHESTER. 


481 


Life,  which  has  usually  been  ascrib- 
ed to  his  son,  Increase  Mather,  but 
which,  as  appears  from  his  son's 
Preface  to  it,  was  written  by  some 
other  person  who  was  ' '  not  willing 
that  his  name  should  be  published. 
But  it  is  done  by  one  who  hath  had 
the  viewing  of  my  father's  manu- 
scripts ;  from  whence,  as  well  as 
from  personal  and  intimate  acquaint- 
ance of  many  years'  continuance, 
and  other  ways,  he  hath  been  truly 
furnished  with  the  knowledge  of 
what  is  here  reported."  One  of  the 
Public  Grammar  Schools  of  Boston, 
situated  in  that  part  of  the  city  which 
was  formerly  Dorchester  Neck,  is 
called  the  Mather  School,  in  honor 
of  this  patriarch.  See  the  Life  of 
Richard  Mather,  printed  at  Cam- 
bridge, N.  E.,  in  1670,  (42  pages, 
smaU  4to.) ;  Mather's  Magnalia,  i. 
401-414 ;  Wood's  Athen.  Oxon. 
iii.  832  (ed.  Bhss)  ;  Blake's  Annals 
of  Dorchester,  pp.  14,  24. 

The  MS.  of  the  preceding  Jour- 
nal, which  is  now  printed  for  the 
first  time,  was  discovered  in  Dor- 
chester in  November,  1844,  in  a  box 
of  old  papers,  w^hich  had  not  been 
examined    for    twenty-five     years. 


The  author  of  the  Life  of  Richard  CHAP. 
Mather,  mentioned  above,  had  this    XXII. 

Journal,  for  on  page  21  he  quotes  at  

length  the  description  of  the  storm,  j  g  3  5 
The  manuscript,  which  is  the  ori- 
ginal, in  the  handwriting  of  the 
author,  is  in  excellent  condition, 
considering  its  age,  211  years,  ex- 
cept that  two  pages  at  the  beginning 
are  a  little  torn  in  the  margin.  It 
probably  once  belonged  to  James 
Blake,  the  author  of  the  Annals  of 
Dorchester,  who  died  in  1750,  and 
from  him  descended  to  the  Rev. 
James  Blake  Howe,  of  Claremont, 
N.  H.,  whose  son,  William  B.  W. 
Howe,  of  St.  John's,  Berkley,  S.  C. 
found  it  in  the  box  of  papers  left  at 
Dorchester  by  his  father,  and  pre- 
sented it  to  the  Dorchester  Anti- 
quarian and  Historical  Society.  By 
the  kindness  of  that  Society,  I  have 
been  permitted  to  copy  and  insert  it 
among  these  Chronicles.  The  ac- 
curacy of  my  copy  has  been  secured 
by  its  careful  collation  with  another 
copy,  which  had  also  been  collated 
with  the  original  and  corrected  by 
my  friend  the  Hon.  James  Savage, 
the  editor  of  Winthrop's  History, 
and  President  of  the  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society. 


31 


i 


ANTHONY   THACHER'S 
NARRATIVE   OF   HIS   SHIPWRECK. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

thacher's  narrative  of  his  shipwreck. 

I  MUST  turn  my  drowned  pen  and  shaking  hand  to  chap. 

indite  the  story  of  such  sad  news  as  never  before  this 

happened  in  New-England.  i6  35. 

There  was  a  league  of  perpetual  friendship  be-  ^^' 
tween  my  cousin  Avery  ^  and  myself,  never  to  for- 
sake each  other  to  the  death,  but  to  be  partakers  of 
each  other's  misery  or  welfare,  as  also  of  habitation, 
in  the  same  place.  Now  upon  our  arrival  in  New- 
England,^  there  was  an  offer  made  unto  us.  My 
cousin  Avery  was  invited  to  Marble-head,^  to  be 
their  pastor  in  due  time  ;  there  being  no  church 
planted  there  as  yet,  but  a  town  appointed  to  set  up 
the  trade  of  fishing.  Because  many  there  (the  most 
being  fishermen,)  were  something  loose  and  remiss 


^  "  This  Mr.  Avery  was  a  pre-  ^  They  came  in  the  James,  from 
cious,  holy  minister,  who  came  Southampton,  which  arrived  at  Bos- 
out  of  England  with  Mr.  Anthony  ton,  June  3.  See  Winthrop,  i.  161  ; 
Thacher."  Increase  Mather's  note.  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  319. 
His  baptismal  name  was  John.  ^  Marblehead  was  not  set  off  from 
Winthrop  calls  him  "  a  minister  in  Salem  till  1649.  See  note  ^  on 
Wiltshire,  a  godly  man."  See  page  244,  and  page  410. 
Winthrop,  i.  165. 


1635 
Aug. 


486  ANTHONY  THACHER's 

CHAP,  in  their  behaviour,  my  cousin  Avery  was  unwillina: 
xxni.  „  .  ° 
to  go  thither  ;  and  so  refusing,  we  went  to  New- 
berry,^ intending  there  to  sit  down.  But  being  soli- 
cited so  often  both  by  the  men  of  the  place,  and  by 
the  magistrates,  and  by  Mr.  Cotton,  and  most  of  the 
ministers,  who  alleged  what  a  benefit  we  might  be 
to  the  people  there,  and  also  to  the  country  and 
commonwealth,  at  length  we  embraced  it,  and  thither 
consented  to  go.  They  of  Marble-head  forthwith 
sent  a  pinnace^  for  us  and  our  goods. 

11.  We  embarked  at  Ipswich  August  11,  1635,  with 
our  families  and  substance,  bound  for  Marble-head, 
we  being  in  all  twenty-three  souls,  viz.,  eleven^  in 
my  cousin's  family,  seven ^  in  mine,  and  one  Mr. 
William  Eliot,   sometimes  of  New  Sarum,   and  four 

12.  mariners.  The  next  morning,  having  commended 
ourselves  to  God,  with  cheerful  hearts,  w^e  hoisted 
sail.  But  the  Lord  suddenly  turned  our  cheerful- 
ness  into  mourning  and  lamentations.     For  on  the 

14.  14th  of  this  August,  1635,  about  ten  at  night,  hav- 
ing a  fresh  gale  of  wind,  our  sails  being  old  and 
done,  were  split.  The  mariners,  because  that  it 
was  night,  would  not  put  to  new  sails,  but  resolved 

15.  to  cast  anchor  till  the  morning.  But  before  daylight, 
it  pleased  the  Lord  to  send  so  mighty  a  storm,  as 
the  like  was  never  known  in  New-Eno:land  since  the 


'  See  note  ^  on  page  411.  ^  Mr.  Avery,   his  wife,  a  maid- 

*  Winthrop,    i.    165,    says    tliat  servant,  and  "  six  small  children," 

this   was    "  a  bark   of  Mr.  Aller-  according  to  Winthrop,  i.  165. 

ton's."     Isaac  AUerton  was  one  of  *  Besides  himself  and   his   wife, 

the   Pilgrims   who   landed   at  Ply-  and  his   four  children,   there    was 

mouth   in   the   Mayflower.     Moses  probably  his  servant,  or  joarne5rman, 

Maverick,  of  Marblehead,    married  Peter  iligden,  who  came  over  with 

his   daughter   Sarah.     See  Chroni-  him  from  England.   See  Mass.  Hist, 

cles  of  Plymouth,  p.  195,  and  Mass.  Coll.  xxviii.  319. 
Hist.  Coll.xxvii.  243-249,  301-304. 


NARRATIVE    OF    HIS    SHIPWRECK.  487 

Ensflish  came,  nor  in  the  memory  of  any  of  the  In-  chap. 

.  .  -'  •'  XXIII. 

dians.^     It  was    so  furious,   that   our    anchor    came  

home.     Whereupon  the  mariners  let  out  more  cable,  i6  35. 
which  at  last  slipped  away.     Then  our  sailors  knew     i^' 
not  what  to  do  ;    but  we  were  driven  before  the 
wind  and  waves. 

My  cousin  and  I  perceived  our  danger,  [and]  solemn- 
ly recommended  ourselves  to  God,  the  Lord  both  of 
earth  and  seas,  expecting  with  every  wave  to  be  swal- 
lowed up  and  drenched  in  the  deeps.  And  as  my 
cousin,  his  wife,  and  my  tender  babes,  sat  comforting 
and  cheering  one  the  other  in  the  Lord  against  ghast- 
ly death,  which  every  moment  stared  us  in  the  face 
and  sat  triumphing  upon  each  one's  forehead,  we 
were  by  the  violence  of  the  waves  and  fury  of  the 
winds,  (by  the  Lord's  permission,)  lifted  up  upon  a 
rock  between  two  high  rocks,  yet  all  was  one  rock. 
But  it  raged  with  the  stroke,  which  came  into  the  pin- 
nace, so  as  we  were  presently  up  to  our  middles  in 
water,  as  we  sat.  The  waves  came  furiously  and  vio- 
lently over  us,  and  against  us,  but,  by  reason  of  the 
rock's  proportion,  could  not  lift  us  off,  but  beat  her 
all  to  pieces.  Now  look  with  me  upon  our  distress, 
and  consider  of  my  misery,  who  beheld  the  ship  bro- 
ken, the  water  in  her,  and  violently  overwhelming  us, 
my  goods  and  provisions  swimming  in  the  seas,  my 
friends  almost  drowned,  and  mine  own  poor  children 
so  untimely  (if  I  may  so  term  it  without  offence,)  be- 
fore mine  eyes  drowned,  and  ready  to  be  swallowed 
up  and  dashed  to  pieces  against  the  rocks  by  the  mer- 
ciless waves,  and  myself  ready  to  accompany  them. 
But  I  must  go  on  to  an  end  of  this  woful  relation. 

•  See  note  '  on  page  473. 


488  ANTHONY    THACHER's 

CHAP.      In  the  same  room  whereas  he  sat,  the  master  of 

xxni. 

■  the  pinnace,  not  knowing  what  to  do,  our  foremast 

16  35.  ^^g  Q^^  down,  our  mainmast  broken  in  three  pieces, 
15?'  the  fore  part  of  the  pinnace  beat  away,  our  goods 
swimming  about  the  seas,  my  children  bewailing  me, 
as  not  pitying  themselves,  and  myself  bemoaning 
them,  poor  souls,  whom  I  had  occasioned  to  such  an 
end  in  their  tender  years,  whenas  they  could  scarce 
be  sensible  of  death.  And  so  likewise  my  cousin, 
his  wife,  and  his  children  ;  and  both  of  us  bewailing 
each  other  in  our  Lord  and  only  Saviour  Jesus  Christ, 
in  whom  only  we  had  comfort  and  cheerfulness  ;  in- 
somuch that,  from  the  greatest  to  the  least  of  us, 
there  was  not  one  screech  or  outcry  made  ;  but  all, 
as  silent  sheep,  were  contentedly  resolved  to  die 
together  lovingly,  as  since  our  acquaintance  we  had 
lived  together  friendly. 

Now  as  I  was  sitting  in  the  cabin  room  door,  with 
my  body  in  the  room,  when  lo  !  one  of  the  sailors, 
by  a  wave  being  washed  out  of  the  pinnace,  was 
gotten  in  again,  and  coming  into  the  cabin  room  over 
my  back,  cried  out,  "  We  are  all  cast  away.  The 
Lord  have  mercy  upon  us  !  I  have  been  washed 
overboard  into  the  sea,  and  am  gotten  in  again." 
His  speeches  made  me  look  forth.  And  looking  to- 
wards the  sea,  and  seeing  how  we  were,  I  turned 
myself  to  my  cousin,  and  the  rest,  and  spake  these 
words  ;  "0  cousin,  it  hath  pleased  God  to  cast  us 
here  between  two  rocks,  the  shore  not  far  from  us, 
for  I  saw  the  tops  of  trees,  when  I  looked  forth." 
Whereupon  the  master  of  the  pinnace,  looking  up  at 
the  scuttle  hole  of  the  quarter  deck,  went  out  at  it ; 
but  I  never  saw  him  afterwards.     Then  he  that  had 


NARRATIVE    OF    HIS    SHIPWRECK.  489 

been  in  the  sea,  went  out  a2:ain  by  me,  and  leaped  chap. 

XXIII 

overboard  towards  the  rocks,  whom  afterwards  also 
I  could  not  see. 

Now  none  were  left  in  the  bark,  that  I  knew  or 
saw,  but  my  cousin,  his  wife  and  children,  myself 
and  mine,  and  his  maid-servant.  But  my  cousin 
thought  I  would  have  fled  from  him,  and  said  unto 
me,  "  0  cousin,  leave  us  not,  let  us  die  together ;" 
and  reached  forth  his  hand  unto  me.  Then  I,  letting 
go  my  son  Peter's  hand,  took  him  by  the  hand,  and 
said,  "  Cousin,  I  purpose  it  not.  Whither  shall  I 
go  ?  I  am  willing  and  ready  here  to  die  with  you 
and  my  poor  children.  God  be  merciful  to  us,  and 
receive  us  to  himself;"  adding  these  words,  "the 
Lord  is  able  to  help  and  deliver  us."  He  replied, 
saying,  "  Truth,  cousin  ;  but  what  his  pleasure  is, 
we  know  not.  I  fear  we  have  been  too  unthankful 
for  former  deliverances.  But  he  hath  promised  to 
deliver  us  from  sin  and  condemnation,  and  to  bring 
us  safe  to  heaven  through  the  all-suflficient  satisfac- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ.  This  therefore  we  may  chal- 
lenge of  Him."  To  which  I  replying,  said,  "  That 
is  all  the  deliverance  I  now  desire  and  expect." 

Which  words  I  had  no  sooner  spoken,  but  by  a 
mighty  wave  I  was,  with  the  piece  of  the  bark,  wash- 
ed out  upon  part  of  the  rock,  where  the  wave  left 
me  almost  drowned.  But  recovering  my  feet,  I  saw 
above  me,  on  the  rock,  my  daughter  Mary.  To 
whom  I  had  no  sooner  gotten,  but  my  cousin  Avery 
and  his  eldest  son  came  to  us  ;  being  all  four  of  us 
washed  out  by  one  and  the  same  wave.  We  went 
all  into  a  small  hole  on  the  top  of  the  rock,  whence 
we  called  to  those  in  the  pinnace  to  come  unto  us, 


490  ANTHONY    THACHER's 

CHAP,  supposing  we  had  been  in  more  safety  than  they 

'■  were  in.     My  wife,  seeing  us  there,  was  crept  up 

^^^^-  into  the  scuttle  of  the  quarter  deck,  to  come  unto  us. 
\b'  But  presently  came  another  wave,  and  dashing  the 
pinnace  all  to  pieces,  carried  my  wife  away  in  the 
scuttle,  as  she  was,  with  the  greater  part  of  the  quar- 
ter deck,  unto  the  shore  ;  where  she  was  cast  safely, 
but  her  legs  were  something  bruised.  And  much 
timber  of  the  vessel  being  there  also  cast,  she  was 
some  time  before  she  could  get  away,  being  washed 
by  the  waves.  All  the  rest  that  were  in  the  bark 
were  drowned  in  the  merciless  seas.  We  four  by 
that  wave  were  clean  swept  away  from  off  the  rock 
also  into  the  sea ;  the  Lord,  in  one  instant  of  time, 
disposing  of  fifteen  souls  of  us  according  to  his  good 
pleasure  and  will. 

His  pleasure  and  wonderful  great  mercy  to  me  was 
thus.  Standing  on  the  rock,  as  before  you  heard, 
with  my  eldest  daughter,  my  cousin,  and  his  eldest 
son,  looking  upon  and  talking  to  them  in  the  bark, 
whenas  we  were  by  that  merciless  wave  washed  off 
the  rock,  as  before  you  heard,  God,  in  his  mercy, 
caused  me  to  fall,  by  the  stroke  of  the  wave,  flat  on 
my  face  ;  for  my  face  was  toward  the  sea.  Inso- 
much, that  as  I  was  sliding  off  the  rock  into  the  sea, 
the  Lord  directed  my  toes  into  a  joint  in  the  rock's 
side,  as  also  the  tops  of  some  of  my  fingers,  with  my 
right  hand,  by  means  whereof,  the  wave  leaving  me, 
I  remained  so,  hanging  on  the  rock,  only  my  head 
above  the  water  ;  when  on  the  left  hand  I  espied  a 
board  or  plank  of  the  pinnace.  And  as  I  was  reach- 
ing out  my  left  hand  to  lay  hold  on  it,  by  another 
coming  over  the  top  of  the  rock  I  was  washed  away 


NARRATIVE    OF    HIS    SHIPWRECK.  491 

from  the  rock,  and  by  the  violence  of  the  waves  was  chap. 

.  .  XXIII. 

driven  hither  and  thither  in  the  seas  a  great  while, 
and  had  many  dashes  against  the  rocks.  At  length, 
past  hopes  of  life,  and  wearied  in  body  and  spirits,  I 
even  gave  over  to  natm'e  ;  and  being  ready  to  receive 
in  the  waters  of  death,  I  lifted  up  both  my  heart  and 
hands  to  the  God  of  heaven.  For  note,  I  had  my 
senses  remaining  perfect  with  me  all  the  time  that  I 
was  under  and  in  water,  who  at  that  instant  lifted 
my  head  above  the  top  of  the  water,  that  so  I  might 
breathe  without  any  hindrance  by  the  waters.  I 
stood  bolt  upright,  as  if  I  had  stood  upon  my  feet  ; 
but  I  felt  no  bottom,  nor  had  any  footing  for  to  stand 
upon  but  the  waters. 

While  I  was  thus  above  the  water,  I  saw  by  me  a 
piece  of  the  mast,  as  I  suppose,  about  three  foot 
long,  which  I  labored  to  catch  into  my  arms.  But 
suddenly  I  was  overwhelmed  with  water,  and  driven 
to  and  fro  again,  and  at  last  I  felt  the  ground  with 
my  right  foot.  When  immediately,  whilst  I  was 
thus  grovelling  on  my  face,  I  presently  recovering 
my  feet,  was  in  the  water  up  to  my  breast,  and 
through  God's  great  mercy  had  my  face  unto  the 
shore,  and  not  to  the  sea.  I  made  haste  to  get  out ; 
but  was  thrown  down  on  my  hands  with  the  waves, 
and  so  with  safety  crept  to  the  dry  shore.  Where, 
blessing  God,  I  turned  about  to  look  for  my  children 
and  friends,  but  saw  neither,  nor  any  part  of  the 
pinnace,  where  I  left  them,  as  I  supposed.  But  I 
saw  my  wife  about  a  butt  length  from  me,  getting 
herself  forth  from  amongst  the  timber  of  the  broken 
bark  ;  but  before  I  could  get  unto  her,  she  was  got- 
ten to  the  shore.     I  was  m  the  water,  after  I  was 


492  ANTHONY    teacher's 

CHAP,  washed  from  the  rock,  before  I  came  to  the  shore,  a 
xxui. 

quarter  of  an  hour  at  least. 

When  we  were  come  each  to  other,  we  went  and 
sat  under  the  bank.  But  fear  of  the  seas  roaring, 
and  our  coldness,  would  not  suffer  us  there  to  remain. 
But  we  went  up  into  the  land,  and  sat  us  down  under 
a  cedar  tree,  which  the  wind  had  thrown  down, 
where  we  sat  about  an  hour,  almost  dead  with  cold. 
But  now  the  storm  was  broken  up,  and  the  wind  was 
calm  ;  but  the  sea  remained  rough  and  fearful  to  us. 
My  legs  were  much  bruised,  and  so  was  my  head. 
Other  hurt  had  I  none,  neither  had  I  taken  in  much 
quantity  of  water.  But  my  heart  would  not  let  me 
sit  still  any  longer  ;  but  I  would  go  to  see  if  any 
more  were  gotten  to  the  land  in  safety,  especially 
hoping  to  have  met  with  some  of  mxy  own  poor  child- 
ren ;  but  I  could  find  none,  neither  dead,  nor  yet 
living. 

You  condole  with  me  my  miseries,  who  now  began 
to  consider  of  my  losses.  Now  came  to  my  remem- 
brance the  time  and  manner  how  and  when  I  last 
saw  and  left  my  children  and  friends.  One  was  sev- 
ered from  me  sitting  on  the  rock  at  my  feet,  the 
other  three  in  the  pinnace  ;  my  little  babe  (ah,  poor 
Peter !)  sitting  in  his  sister  Edith's  arms,  who  to  the 
uttermost  of  her  power  sheltered  him  from  the  wa- 
ters ;  my  poor  William  standing  close  unto  them, 
all  three  of  them  looking  ruefully  on  me  on  the  rock, 
their  very  countenances  calling  unto  me  to  help  them; 
whom  I  could  not  go  unto,  neither  could  they  come 
at  me,  neither  would  the  merciless  waves  afford  me 
space  or  time  to  use  any  means  at  all,  either  to  help 
them  or  myself.     Oh  I  yet   see  their  cheeks,  poor 


I 

I 


NARRATIVE    OF    HIS    SHIPWRECK. 


493 


silent  lambs,  pleading  pity  and  help  at  my  hands,  chap. 
Then,  on  the  other  side,  to  consider  the  loss  of  my  dear 
friends,  with  the  spoiling  and  loss  of  all  our  goods  and 
provisions,  myself  cast  upon  an  unknown  land,  in  a 
wilderness,  I  knew  not  where,  nor  how  to  get  thence. 
Then  it  came  to  my  mind  how  I  had  occasioned  the 
death  of  my  children,^  who  caused  them  to  leave 
their  native  land,  who  might  have  left  them  there, 
yea,  and  might  have  sent  some  of  them  back  again, 
and  cost  me  nothing.  These  and  such  like  thoughts 
do  press  down  my  heavy  heart  very  much. 

But  I  must  let  this  pass,  and  will  proceed  on  in 
the  relation  of  God's  goodness  unto  me  in  that  deso- 
late island,  on  which  I  was  cast.  I  and  my  wife 
were  almost  naked,  both  of  us,  and  wet  and  cold 
even  unto  death.  I  found  a  snapsack  cast  on  the 
shore,  in  which  I  had  a  steel,  and  flint,  and  powder- 
horn.  Going  further,  I  found  a  drowned  goat ;  then 
I  found  a  hat,  and  my  son  William's  coat,  both  which 
I  put  on.^  My  wife  found  one  of  her  petticoats, 
which  she  put  on.  I  found  also  two  cheeses  and 
some  butter,  driven  ashore.  Thus  the  Lord  sent  us 
some  clothes  to  put  on,  and  food  to  sustain  our  new 
lives,  which  we  had  lately  given  unto  us,  and  means 
also  to  make  fire  ;  for  in  a  horn  I  had  some  gunpow- 
der, which,  to  mine  own,  and  since  to  other  men's 
admiration,  was  dry.  So  taking  a  piece  of  my  wife's 
neckcloth,  which  I  dried  in  the  sun,  I  struck  fire, 
and  so  dried  and  warmed  our  wet  bodies  ;  and  then 
skinned  the  goat,  and  having  found  a  small  brass  pot, 


'  His  children  were  four  in  num-  ^  We  may  infer  from  this  that 
ber,  William,  Mary,  Edith,  and  his  son  William  was  a  full-grown 
Peter.  youth. 


494 


ANTHONY  THACHER,  OF  YARMOUTH. 


CHAP,  we  boiled  some  of  her.     Our  drmk  was  brackish 

XXIII.  -o  1  11 

water.     Bread  we  had  none. 

1635.  There  we  remained  mitil  the  Monday  following  ; 
17?"  when,  about  three  of  the  clock  in  the  afternoon,  in  a 
boat  that  came  that  way,  we  went  off  that  desolate 
island,  which  I  named  after  my  name,  Thacher's  Woe,^ 
and  the  rock,  Avery  his  Fall,^  to  the  end  that  their 
fall  and  loss,  and  mine  own,  might  be  had  in  perpetual 
remembrance.  In  the  isle  lieth  buried  the  body  of 
my  cousin's  eldest  daughter,  whom  I  found  dead  on 
18.  the  shore.  On  the  Tuesday  following,  in  the  after- 
noon, we  arrived  at  Marblehead.^ 


*  Now  called  Thacher's  Island. 
It  lies  about  two  miles  east  of  the 
south-east  point  of  Cape  Ann. 

^  Now  called  Avery's  Rock. 

^  Anthony  Thacher,  the  writer 
of  this  heart-rending  Narrative,  was 
a  tailor,  from  Salisbury,  in  Wilt- 
shire, where  his  brother  Peter  was 
the  rector  of  the  church  of  St.  Ed- 
mund as  early  as  1622.  It  was 
written  in  a  letter  to  his  brother,  as 
Increase  Mather  says,  "within  a 
few  days  after  that  eminent  provi- 
dence happened  to  him,  when  mat- 
ters were  fresh  in  his  memory." 
Anthony  Thacher  sailed  from  South- 
ampton in  April,  1635,  in  the  James, 
of  London,  and  arrived  at  Boston 
June  3.  With  him  came  his  bro- 
ther's son,  Thomas,  then  a  youth  of 
fifteen,  his  parents  intending  soon  to 
follow  with  the  rest  of  the  family  ; 
which  intention,  however,  was  pre- 
vented by  the  death  of  his  mother. 
Cotton  Mather  says  that  "  a  day  or 
two  before  that  fatal  voyage  from 
Newbury  to  Marblehead,  our  young 
Thacher  had  such  a  strong  and  sad 
impression  upon  his  mind  about  the 
issue  of  the  voyage,  that  he,  with 
another,  would  needs  go  the  journey 
by  land,  and  so  he  escaped  perish- 
ing with  some  of  his  pious  and  pre- 
cious friends  by  sea."  He  was  ed- 
ucated  for   the   ministry  under  the 


Rev.  Charles  Chauncy,  afterwards 
President  of  Harvard  College,  mar- 
ried. May  11,  1643,  a  daughter  of 
the  Rev.  Ralph  Partridge,  of  Dux- 
bury,  was  ordained  pastor  of  the 
church  at  Weymouth  Jan.  2,  1645, 
and  installed  the  first  pastor  of  the 
Third,  or  Old  South  Church,  in  Bos- 
ton, Feb.  16,  1670,  where  he  con- 
tinued till  he  died,  Oct.  16,  1678, 
aged  58.  He  was  the  progenitor  of 
the  long  line  of  clergymen  who  have 
illustrated  the  name  of  Thacher,  the 
last  of  whom  was  my  young  friend 
and  parishioner,  the  Rev.  William 
Vincent  Thacher,  the  amiable  and 
accomplished  pastor  of  the  Unitarian 
Church  at  Savannah,  in  Georgia, 
who  died  July  16,  1839,  aged  24, 

After  this  sad  catastrophe,  by 
which  he  lost  all  his  children,  An- 
thony Thacher  resided  at  Marsh- 
field  ;  and  "the  General  Court," 
says  Winthrop,  "gave  him  £26 
135.  4f/.  towards  his  losses,  and  di- 
vers good  people  gave  him  besides." 
In  Jan.  1639,  he  removed  to  Yar- 
mouth, on  Cape  Cod,  being  one  of 
the  three  original  grantees  of  land 
in  that  town,  where  he  resided  till 
his  death  in  1668,  aged  about  80. 
He  left  two  sons  and  one  daughter, 
born  after  the  disastrous  shipwreck, 
John,  Judah,  and  Bethiah,  who,  tra- 
dition says,  were  the  children  of  a 


THE    THACHER    FAMILY. 


495 


second  wife,  named  Elizabeth  Jones, 
whom  he  married  about  six  weeks 
before  he  left  England.  A  long  line 
of  descendants,  the  children  of  John, 
perpetuate  the  name  at  Yarmouth, 
Boston,  and  elsewhere.  The  late 
Dr.  James  Thacher,  of  Plymouth, 
was  a  descendant  from  Anthony  in 
the  sixth  generation.  Winthrop 
mentions  among  the  articles  saved 
from  the  %vreck  ' '  a  truss  of  bed- 
ding ;"  and  Dr.  Thacher  states  that 
' '  a  cradle  coverlet,  of  scarlet  broad- 
cloth, and  some  articles  of  clothing. 


1635, 


said  to  have  been  saved  from  the  CHAP 
ship%vreck,  are  now  in  the  possession  XXIII.' 
of  Mr.  Peter  Thacher,  and  such  is  ^- — — 
the  veneration  for  these  relics,  that 
every  child  of  Thacher  families  that 
has  been  baptized  in  Yarmouth,  has 
been  carried  to  the  baptismal  font 
enwrapped  in  them."  See  Increase 
Mather's  Illustrious  Providences, 
pages  2-14;  Winthrop,  i.  161,  165; 
Mather's  Magnalia,  i.  441-448  ; 
Mass.  Hist.  CoU.  viii.  277,  xxviii. 
317,  319;  N.  Eng.  Magazine,  vii. 
1-16. 


THOMAS  SHEPARD'S 
MEMOIR  OF  HIS   OWN  LIFE. 


32 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

THOMAS    SHEPARD's    MEMOIR    OF    HIMSELF. 
T.      j  MY  BIRTH  AND  LIFE.  |      S. 

In  the  year  of  Christ  1604,^  upon  the   5th  day  of  chap. 

November,  called  the  Powder  Treason  day,  and  that 

very  hour  of  the  day  wherein  the  Parliament  should  ^1^"^' 
have  been  blown  up  by  Popish  priests,  I  was  then  born ;     5. 
which  occasioned  my  father  to  give  me  this  name, 
Thomas  ;  because,  he  said,  I  w^ould  hardly  believe^ 
that  ever  any  such  wickedness  should  be  attempted 
by  men  against  so  religious  and  good  [a]  Parliament. 

My  father's  name  was  William  Shepard,  born  in  a 
little  poor  town  in  Northamptonshire,  called  Fosse- 
cut,  near  Towcester ;  and  being  a  'prentice  to  one 
Mr.  Bland,  a  grocer,  he  married  one  of  his  daugh- 
ters, of  whom  he  begat  many  children,  three  sons, 
John,  William,  and  Thomas,  and  six  daughters,  Ann, 
Margaret,   Mary,   Elizabeth,   Hester,  Sarah  ;  of  all 

'  This  is  a  singular  anachronism,  ^  An  allusion  to  the  skepticism  of 

antedating  the  Powder  Plot  a  whole  the  Apostle   Thomas,   recorded   in 

year.     It  is  well  known  that  it  was  the  Gospel  of  John,  xx.  25. 
in  1605  that  this  plot  was  contrived. 


500  shepard's  parentage  and  family. 

CHAP,  which  only  John,  Thomas,  Anna,  and  Margaret,  are 

XXIV.      .       .   .     -^  . 

still  living   in  the  town  where  I  was  born,  viz.  Tow- 

cester,^  in  Northamptonshire,  six  miles  distant  from 
the  town  of  Northampton,  in  Old  England. 

I  do  well  remember  my  father,  and  have  some 
little  remembrance  of  my  mother.  My  father  was  a 
wise,  prudent  man,  the  peacemaker  of  the  place  ; 
and  toward  his  latter  end  much  blessed  of  God  in  his 
estate  and  in  his  soul.  For  there  being  no  good  min- 
istry in  the  town,  he  was  resolved  to  go  and  live  at 
Banbury,^  in  Oxfordshire,  under  a  stirring  ministry, 
having  bought  a  house  there  for  that  end.  My  mo- 
ther was  a  woman  much  afflicted  in  conscience,  some- 
times even  unto  distraction  of  mind ;  yet  was  sweetly 
recovered  again  before  she  died.  I  being  the  young- 
est, she  did  bear  exceeding  great  love  to  me,  and 
made  many  prayers  for  me ;  but  she  died  when  I  was 

1608.  about  four  years  old,  and  my  father  lived,  and  mar- 
ried a  second  wife,  now  dwelling  in  the  same  town, 
of  whom  he  begat  two  children,   Samuel  and  Eliza- 

1614.  beth,  and  died  when  I  was  about  ten  years  of  age. 

But  while  my  father  and  mother  lived,  when  I  was 

16  07.  about  three  years  old,  there  was  a  great  plague  in  the 
town  of  Towcester,  which  swept  away  many  in  my 
father's  family,  both  sisters  and  servants.  I  being 
the  youngest,  and  best  beloved  of  my  mother,  was 
sent  away  the  day  the  plague  brake  out,  to  live  with 
my  aged  grandfather  and  grandmother  in  Fosseciit, 
a  most  blind  town  and  corner,  and  those  I  lived  with 
also  being  very  well  to  live,  yet  very  ignorant.    And 

'  Towcester  is  a  market  town,  ^  Banbury  is  a  borough  and  mar- 
eight  miles  from  Northampton.  Po-  ket  town,  09  miles  northwest  from 
pulation  in  1841,  2749.  London.     Population  in  1841,7366. 


HE    IS    SENT    TO    SCHOOL.  501 

there  was  I  put  to  keep  geese,  and  other  such  country  chap. 

work,  all  that  time  much  neglected  of  them ;  and  af 

terward  sent  from  them  unto  Adthrop,  a  little  blind  160  7. 
town  adjoining,  to  my  uncle,  where  I  had  more  con- 
tent, but  did  learn  to  sing  and  sport,  as  children  do 
in  those  parts,  and  dance  at  their  Whitson  Ales  ;^ 
until  the  plague  was  removed,  and  my  dear  mother 
dead,  who  died  not  of  the  plague,  but  of  some  other 
disease,  after  it.  And  being  come  home,  my  sister 
Ann  married  to  one  Mr.  Farmer,  and  my  sister  Mar- 
garet loved  me  much,  who  afterward  married  to  my 
father's  'prentice,  viz.  Mr.  Mapler,  and  my  father 
married  again  to  another  woman,  who  did  let  me  see 
the  difference  between  my  own  mother  and  a  step- 
mother. She  did  seem  not  to  love  me,  but  incens- 
ed my  father  often  against  me  ;  it  may  be  that  it 
was  justly  also,  for  my  childishness.  And  having 
lived  thus  for  a  time,  my  father  sent  me  to  school  to 
a  AVelshman,  one  Mr.  Rice,  who  kept  the  free  school 
in  the  town  of  Towcester.  But  he  Avas  exceeding 
curst  ^  and  cruel,  and  would  deal  roughly  with  me, 
and  so  discouraged  me  wholly  from  desire  of  learn- 
ing, that  I  remember  I  wished  oftentimes  myself  in 
any  condition,  to  keep  hogs  or  beasts,  rather  than  to 
go  to  school  and  learn. 

But  my  father  at  last  was  visited  with  sickness, 
having  taken  some  cold  upon  some  pills  he  took,  and 
so  had  the  hickets^  with  his  sickness  a  week  together; 

•  These   were    the    sports    and  the  description  of  them  in  Brand's 

dances  usual  in  the  country  at  Whit-  Popular  Antiquities,  i.  157,  (Ellis's 

suntide.     They  were  attended  with  edit.     1841);     Hone's   Every-Day 

ludicrous  gestures  and  acts  of  foole-  Book,  i.  685  ;    Strutt's  Sports  and 

ry   and   buffoonery,  and  commonly  Pastimes,  pp.  358,  367. 

ended  in  drunkenness  and  debauch-  ^  Crusty,  peevish,  snarling, 

ery  ;  and  of  course  were  discounte-  ^  Hickups,  hiccoughs, 
nanced  by  the  grave  Puritans.     See 


502  HE  RESOLVES  TO  BE  A  SCHOLAR. 

CHAP,  in  which  time  I  do  remember  I  did  pray  very  strongly 

'X'X'TV  J.         */  •/  o   •/ 

- — ^^  and  heartily  for  the  life  of  my  father,  and  made  some 
covenant,  if  God  would  do  it,  to  serve  Him  the  bet- 
ter, as  knowing  I  should  be  left  alone  if  he  was  gone. 
Yet  the  Lord  took  him  away  by  death,  and  so  I  was 

1614.  left  fatherless  and  motherless,  when  I  was  about  ten 
years  old  ;  and  was  committed  to  my  stepmother  to 
be  educated,  who  therefore  had  my  portion,  which 
was  a  .£100,  which  my  father  left  me.  But  she  neg- 
lecting my  education  very  much,  my  brother  John, 
who  was  my  only  brother  alive,  desired  to  have  me 
out  of  her  hands,  and  to  have  me  with  him,  and  he 
would  bring  me  up  for  the  use  of  my  portion  ;  and 
so  at  last  it  was  granted.  And  so  I  lived  with  this 
my  eldest  brother,  who  showed  much  love  unto  me, 
and  unto  w^hom  I  owe  much  ;  for  him  God  made  to 
be  both  father  and  mother  unto  me.  And  it  happen- 
ed that  the  cruel  schoolmaster  died,  and  another 
came  into  his  room,  to  be  a  preacher  also  in  the 
town  ;  who  was  an  eminent  preacher  in  those  days, 
and  accounted  holy,  but  afterward  turned  a  great 
apostate,  and  enemy  to  all  righteousness,  and  I  fear 
did  commit  the  unpardonable  sin.  Yet  it  so  fell  out, 
by  God's  good  providence,  that  this  man  stirred  up 
in  my  heart  a  love  and  desire  of  the  honor  of  learn- 
ing, and  therefore  I  told  my  friends  I  would  be  a 
scholar  ;  and  so  the  Lord  blessed  me  in  my  studies, 
and  gave  me  some  knowledge  of  the  Latin  and  Greek 
tongues,  but  much  ungrounded  in  both.  But  I  was 
studious,  because  I  was  ambitious  of  learning  and  be- 
ing a  scholar;  and  hence  when  I  could  not  take  notes 
of  the  sermon,  I  remember  I  was  troubled  at  it,  and 
prayed  the  Lord  earnestly  that  he  would  help  me  to 


HE   ENTERS   EMMANUEL   COLLEGE.  503 

note  sermons  ;   and  I  see  cause  of  wonderino;  at  the  chap. 

XXIV. 

Lord's  providence  therein  ;  for  as  soon  as  ever  I  had 

prayed  (after  my  best  fashion)  Him  for  it,  I  presently, 
the  next  Sabbath,  was  able  to  take  notes,  who  the 
precedent  Sabbath  could  do  nothing  at  all  that  way. 

So  I  continued  till  I  was  about  fifteen  years  of  age,  1619. 
and  then  was  conceived  to  be  ripe  for  the  University; 
and  it  pleased  the  Lord  to  put  it  into  my  brother's 
heart  to  provide  and  to  seek  to  prepare  a  place  for 
me  there  ;  which  was  done  in  this  manner.  One 
Mr.  Cockerill,  Fellow  of  Emmanuel  College  in  Cam- 
bridge, being  a  Northamptonshire  man,  came  down 
into  the  country  to  Northampton,  and  so  sent  for 
me  ;  who,  upon  examination  of  me,  gave  my  brother 
encouragement  to  send  me  up  to  Cambridge.  And 
so  I  came  up ;  and  though  I  was  very  raw  and  young, 
yet  it  pleased  God  to  open  the  hearts  of  others  to 
admit  me  into  the  College  a  pensioner  ;  and  so  Mr. 
Cockerill  became  my  tutor.  But  I  do  here  wonder, 
and,  I  hope,  shall  bless  the  Lord  forever  in  heaven, 
that  the  Lord  did  so  graciously  provide  for  me  ;  for 
I  have  oft  thought  what  a  woful  estate  I  had  been 
left  in,  if  the  Lord  had  left  me  in  that  profane,  igno- 
rant town  of  Towcester,  where  I  was  born  ;  that  the 
Lord  should  pluck  me  out  of  that  sink  and  Sodom, 
who  was  the  least  in  my  father's  house,  forsaken  of 
father  and  mother,  yet  that  the  Lord  should  fetch  me 
out  from  thence,  by  such  a  secret  hand. 

The  first  two  years  I  spent  in  Cambridge  was  in  1620. 
studying,   and  in  much  neglect  of  God  and  private 
prayer,  which  I  had  sometime  used  ;   and  I  did  not 
regard  the  Lord  at  all,  unless  it  were  at  some  fits. 
The  third  year,  wherein  I  was  Sophister,  I  began  to  i62i. 


504  HE    HEARS    DOCTOR  CHADDERTON. 

CHAP,  be  foolish  and  proud,  and  to  show  myself  in  the  Pub- 

XXIV 

''  lie  Schools,  and  there  to  be  a  disputer  about  things 

which  now  I  see  I  did  not  know  then  at  all,  but  only 
prated  about  them.  And  toward  the  end  of  this 
year,  when  I  was  most  vile,  (after  I  had  been  next 
unto  the  gates  of  death  by  the  small  pox  the  year 
before,)  the  Lord  began  to  call  me  home  to  the  fel- 
lowship of  his  grace  ;  which  was  in  this  manner. 

1.  I  do  remember  that  I  had  many  good  affections, 
but  blind  and  unconstant,  oft  cast  into  me  since  my 
father's  sickness,  by  the  spirit  of  God  wrestling  with 
me  ;  and  hence  I  would  pray  in  secret,  and  hence, 
when  I  was  at  Cambridge,  I  heard  old  Doctor  Chad- 
derton,^   the  master   of  the   College  w^hen  I   came. 

1619.  And  the  first  year  I  was  there,  to  hear  him,  upon  a 
sacrament  day,  my  heart  was  much  affected ;  but  I 
did  break  loose  from  the  Lord  again.     And  half  a 

1620.  year  after,  I  heard  Mr.  Dickinson  common-place  in 
Gen.   the  Chapel  upon  those  words,  "  I  will  not  destroy  it 

'  for  ten's  sake,"  and  then  again  was  much  affected  ; 
but  I  shook  this  off  also,  and  fell  from  God  to  loose 
and  lewd  company,  to  lust,  and  pride,  and  gaming, 

*  Laurence  Chadderton  was  born  tend  the  Conference  at  Hampton 
at  Chadderton,  in  Lancashh-e,  in  Court,  and  was  also  appointed  by 
1537,  of  an  ancient  and  wealthy  him  the  same  year  one  of  the  Trans- 
family.  His  parents,  who  were  lators  of  the  Bible  He  was  a  man 
Papists,  intended  him  for  the  Law,  of  great  abilities  and  learning,  a  de- 
and  sent  him  to  the  Inns  of  Court,  cided  but  moderate  Puritan,  and  "  a 
But  he  soon  became  a  Protestant,  grave,  pious,  and  excellent  preach- 
forsook  the  study  of  the  Law,  and  er."  He  lived  to  see  three  succes- 
entered  Christ's  College,  Cam-  sors  in  the  mastership  of  his  Col- 
bridge,  in  1564,  of  which  he  was  lege,  and  died  Nov.  13,  1640,  in 
chosen  a  Fellow  three  years  after-  the  103d  year  of  his  age.  See  Vita 
wards.  In  1584,  when  Sir  Walter  Chaddertoni,  a  Gul.  Dillinghamo  ; 
Mildmay  founded  Emmanuel  Col-  Samuel  Clarke's  Lives,  p.  145,  (fol. 
lege,  he  was  chosen  by  him  its  first  1677)  ;  Fuller's  Worthies,  i.  550  ; 
Master,  in  which  office  he  continued  Brook's  Lives  of  the  Puritans,  ii. 
thirty-eight  years,  till  1622.  In  445;  Dyer's  Hist,  of  Univ.  of  Cam- 
1603  he  was  one  of  the  four  Puritan  bridge,  ii.  351. 
divines  selected  by  James  I.  to  at- 


HE    BECOMES    DISSIPATED.  505 

and  bowlinsf,  and  drinkina;.     And  yet  the  Lord  left  chap- 

XXIV. 

me  not ;  but  a  godly  scholar,  walking  with  me,  fell • 

to  discom'se  about  the  misery  of  every  man  out  of  1620. 
Christ,  viz.  that  whatever  they  did  was  sin  ;  and 
this  did  much  affect  me.  And,  at  another  time,  when 
I  did  light  in  godly  company,  I  heard  them  discourse 
about  the  wrath  of  God,  and  the  terror  of  it,  and 
how  intolerable  it  was  ;  which  they  did  present  by 
fire,  how  intolerable  the  torment  of  that  was  for  a 
time  ;  what  then  would  eternity  be  ?  And  this  did 
much  awaken  me,  and  I  began  to  pray  again.  But 
then,  by  loose  company,  I  came  to  dispute  in  the 
Schools,  and  there  to  join  to  loose  scholars  of  other 
Colleges,  and  was  fearfully  left  of  God,  and  fell  to 
drink  with  them.  And  I  drank  so  much  one  day, 
that  I  was  dead  drunk,  and  that  upon  a  Saturday 
night  ;  and  .so  was  carried  from  the  place  I  had 
drinked  at  and  did  feast  at,  unto  a  scholar's  chamber, 
one  Bassett,  of  Christ's  College,  and  knew  not  where 
I  was  until  I  awakened  late  on  that  Sabbath,  and  sick 
with  my  beastly  carriage.  And  when  I  av\^akened,  I 
went  from  him  in  shame  and  confusion,  and  went  out 
into  the  fields,  and  there  spent  that  Sabbath  lying  hid 
in  the  cornfields  ;  where  the  Lord,  who  might  justly 
have  cut  me  off"  in  the  midst  of  my  sin,  did  meet  me 
with  much  sadness  of  heart,  and  troubled  my  soul  for 
this  and  other  my  sins,  which  then  I  had  cause  and 
leisure  to  think  of.  And  note,  when  I  was  worst, 
He  began  to  be  best  unto  me,  and  made  me  resolve 
to  set  upon  a  course  of  daily  meditation  about  the 
evil  of  sin  and  my  own  ways.  Yet  although  I  was 
troubled  for  this  sin,  I  did  not  know  my  sinful  nature 
all  this  while. 


506 


SAMUEL    STONE, OF    HARTFORD. 


1622. 


2.  The  Lord  therefore  sent  Dr.  Preston^  to  be 
Master  of  the  College  ;  and  Mr.  Stone ~  and  others 
commending  his  preaching  to  be  most  spiritual  and 
excellent,  I  began  to  listen  unto  what  he  said.  The 
first  sermon  he  preached  was  Romans  xii.  "  Be  re- 
newed in  the  spirit  of  your  mind."  In  opening  which 
point,  viz.  the  change  of  heart  in  a  Christian,  the 
Lord  so  bored  my  ears,  as  that  I  understood  what  he 
spake,  and  the  secrets  of  my  soul  were  laid  open  be- 
fore me,  the  hypocrisy  of  all  my  good  things  I 
thought  I  had  in  me  ;  as  if  one  had  told  him  of  all 
that  ever  I  did,  of  all  the  turnings  and  deceits  of  my 
heart  ;  insomuch  as  that  I  thought  he  was  the  most 
searching  preacher  in  the  world,  and  I  began  to  love 


^  John  Preston  was  born  at  Hey- 
ford,  in  Northamptonshire,  in  1587, 
and  was  admitted  to  King's  College, 
Cambridge,  in  l(i04,  and  in  1609 
was  chosen  a  Fellow  of  Queen's. 
At  this  time  he  was  a  very  ambi- 
tious and  aspiring  student ;  but  hear- 
ing a  sermon  preached  at  St.  Mary's 
by  our  John  Cotton,  of  Boston,  he 
was  seriously  impressed,  and  direct- 
ed all  his  studies  to  a  preparation 
for  the  ministry.  He  was  appointed 
chaplain  to  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
and  preacher  at  Lincoln's  Inn,  and 
on  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Chadder- 
ton  in  1622  was  chosen  Master  of 
Emmanuel  College.  He  was  in 
great  favor  with  the  Duke  of  Buck- 
ingham, and  might  have  had  the 
bishoprick  of  Gloucester,  but  he  pre- 
ferred the  Lectureship  of  Trinity 
Church,  Cambridge.  On  the  acces- 
sion of  Charles  L  the  Duke  offered 
him  the  Great  Seal,  which  he  pru- 
dently declined,  though  he  had  abil- 
ities enough  to  manage  it.  He  died 
July  20,  1628,  being  only  41  years 
of  age.  Fuller,  who  classes  him 
among  the  learned  writers  of  Queen's 
College,  says  "  he  was  all  judgment 
and  gravity,   an  excellent  preacher, 


a  subtle  disputant,  and  a  perfect  pol- 
itician." Echard  styles  him  "  the 
most  celebrated  of  the  Puritans." 
See  page  422  ;  his  Life  by  Thomas 
Ball  in  Clarke's  Lives,  pp.  75-114; 
Fuller's  Worthies,  ii.  171,  Hist. 
Cambridge,  pp.  121,  206,  Church 
Hist.  iii.  355  ;  Brook's  Puritans,  Li. 
352  ;  Neal's  Puritans,  ii.  219  ;  Ech- 
ard's  Hist,  of  Eng.  ii.  72. 

^  Samuel  Stone  was  born  at  Hert- 
ford, in  Hertfordshire,  and  was  edu- 
cated at  Emmanuel  College,  where 
he  took  the  degree  of  A.  B.  in  1623, 
and  of  A.  M.  in  1627.  To  escape 
persecution,  he  came  over  to  New- 
England  in  Sept.  1633,  in  the  same 
ship  with  Cotton  and  Hooker,  was 
settled  as  colleague  with  the  latter 
at  Cambridge  Oct.  11,  1633,  and  in 
1636  removed  with  him  to  Hart- 
ford, on  Connecticut  river,  which 
received  its  name  from  his  birth- 
place. He  died  July  20,  1663,  be- 
ing probably  about  60  years  old. 
He  accompanied  Mason's  expedition 
in  the  Pecpiot  War,  as  chaplain. 
See  Mather's  Magnalia,  i.  392 ; 
Winthrop,  i.  108  ;  Morton's  Memo- 
rial, p.  301  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
xviii.  134,  xxviii.  248. 


shepard's  skepticism.  507 

him  much,  and  to  bless  God  I  did  see  my  frame,  and  chap. 

•  1   1  1      T  XXIV. 

my  hypocrisy,  and  self  and  secret  sms,  although  I  ^^- 
found  a  hard  heart,  and  could  not  be  affected  with  1^24. 
them. 

3.  I  did  therefore  set  more  constantly  upon  the  May 
work  of  daily  meditation,  sometimes  every  morning, 
but  constantly  every  evening  before  supper ;  and  my 
chief  meditation  was  about  the  evil  of  sin,  the  terror 
of  God's  wrath,  day  of  death,  beauty  of  Christ,  the 
deceitfulness  of  the  heart,  &c.  But  principally  I 
found  this  my  misery  ;  sin  w^as  not  my  greatest  evil, 
did  lie  light  upon  me  as  yet ;  yet  I  was  much  afraid 
of  death  and  the  flames  of  God's  wrath.  And  this  I 
remember,  I  never  went  out  to  meditate  in  the  fields 
but  I  did  find  the  Lord  teaching  me  somewhat  of  my- 
self, or  Himself,  or  the  vanity  of  the  world,  I  never 
saw  before.  And  hence  I  took  out  a  little  book  I 
have  every  day  into  the  fields,  and  writ  down  what 
God  taught  me,  lest  I  should  forget  them ;  and  so 
the  Lord  encouraged  me,  and  I  grew  much.  But,  in 
my  observation  of  myself,  I  did  see  my  atheism.  I 
questioned  whether  there  were  a  God,  and  my  unbe- 
lief w^hether  Christ  w^as  the  Messiah;  whether  the 
Scriptures  were  God's  w^ord,  or  no.  I  felt  all  man- 
ner of  temptations  to  all  kind  of  religions,  not  know- 
ing which  I  should  choose  ;  whether  education  might 
not  make  me  believe  what  I  had  believed,  and 
whether,  if  I  had  been  educated  up  among  the  Pa- 
pists, I  should  not  have  been  as  verily  persuaded 
that  Popery  is  the  truth,  or  Turcisme  is  the  truth. 
And  at  last  I  heard  of  Grindleton,  and  I  did  ques- 
tion whether  that  glorious  estate  of  perfection  might 
not  be  the  truth,  and  whether  old  Mr.  Rogers's  Seven 


508  HIS    SPIRITUAL    TEMPTATIONS. 

CHAP.  Treatises,^  and  the  Practice  of  Christianity,  the  book 

'-  which  did  first  work  upon  my  heart,  whether  these 

1624.  lYien  were  not  all  legal  men,  and  their  books  so. 
But  the  Lord  delivered  me  at  last  from  them,  and  in 
the  conclusion,  after  many  prayers,  meditations, 
duties,  the  Lord  let  me  see  three  main  wounds  in  my 
soul.  (L)  I  could  not  feel  sin  as  my  greatest  evil. 
(2.)  I  could  do  nothing  but  I  did  seek  myself  in  it,  and 
was  imprisoned  there  ;  and  though  I  desired  to  be  a 
preacher,  yet  it  was  honor  I  did  look  to,  like  a  vile 
wretch,  in  the  use  of  God's  gifts  I  desired  to  have. 
(3.)  I  felt  a  depth  of  atheism  and  unbelief  in  the  main 
matters  of  salvation,  and  whether  the  Scriptures  were 
God's  word.  These  things  did  much  trouble  me, 
and  in  the  conclusion  did  so  far  trouble  me,  that  I 
could  not  read  the  Scriptures,  or  hear  them  read, 
without  secret  and  hellish  blasphemy,  calling  all  into 
question,  and  all  Christ's  miracles.  And  hereupon  I 
fell  to  doubt  whether  I  had  not  committed  the  un- 
pardonable sin  ;  and  because  I  did  question  whether 
Christ  did  not  cast  out  devils  from  Beelzebub,  &c., 
I  did  think  and  fear  I  had.  And  now  the  terrors  of 
God  began  to  break  in,  like  floods  of  fire,  into  my 
soul. 

For  three  quarters  of  a  year  this  temptation  did 
last,  and  I  had  some  strong  temptations  to  run  my 
head  against  walls,  and  brain  and  kill  myself.  And 
so  I  did  see,  as  I  thought,  God's  eternal  reprobation 
of  me  :  a  fruit  of  which  was  this  dereliction  to  these 


*  Richard  Rogers  was  settled  in  and  Ezekiel  Rogers,  both  eminent 
the  ministry  at  Weathcrsfield,  in  Puritan  divines,  and  the  latter  of 
Essex,  and  was  twice  suspended  whom  came  over  to  New-England, 
and  silenced  by  Archbishop  Whit-  and  was  the  first  minister  of  Row- 
gift.     He  was  the  father  of  Daniel  ley.    See  Brook's  Puritans,  ii.  231. 


HIS    CONSCIOUSNESS    OF    SIN.  509 

doubts  and  darkness,  and  I  did  see  God  like  a  con-  chap. 

XXIV 

suming  fire  and  an  everlasting  burning,  and  myself •' 

like  a  poor  prisoner  leading  to  that  fire  ;  and  the  1624. 
thoughts  of  eternal  reprobation  and  torment  did 
amaze  my  spirits,  especially  at  one  time  upon  a  Sab- 
bath day  at  evening.  And  when  I  knew  not  what 
to  do,  (for  I  went  to  no  Christian,  and  was  ashamed 
to  speak  of  these  things,)  it  came  to  my  mind  that 
I  should  do  as  Christ,  when  he  was  in  an  agony.  He 
prayed  earnestly  ;  and  so  I  fell  down  to  prayer. 
And  being  in  prayer,  I  saw  myself  so  unholy,  and 
God  so  holy,  that  my  spirits  began  to  sink.  Yet  the 
Lord  recovered  me,  and  poured  out  a  spirit  of  prayer 
upon  me  for  free  mercy  and  pity  ;  and  in  the  con- 
clusion of  the  prayer,  I  found  the  Lord  helping  me 
to  see  my  unworthiness  of  any  mercy,  and  that  I  was 
worthy  to  be  cast  out  of  his  sight,  and  to  leave  my- 
self with  him  to  do  with  me  what  he  would  ;  and 
then,  and  never  until  then,  I  found  rest,  and  so  my 
heart  was  humbled,  and  cast  down,  and  I  went  with 
a  stayed  heart  unto  supper  late  that  night,  and  so 
rested  here,  and  the  terrors  of  the  Lord  began  to 
assuage  sweetly.  Yet  when  these  were  gone,  I  felt 
my  senselessness  of  sin,  and  bondage  to  self,  and 
unconstancy,  and  losing  what  the  Lord  had  wrought, 
and  my  heartlessness  to  any  good,  and  loathing  of 
God's  ways.  Whereupon,  walking  in  the  fields,  the 
Lord  dropped  this  meditation  into  me,  ''  Be  not  dis- 
couraged, therefore,  because  thou  art  so  vile,  but 
make  this  double  use  of  it ;  first,  loathe  thyself  the 
more ;  secondly,  feel  a  greater  need  and  put  a  greater 
price  upon  Jesus  Christ,  who  only  can  redeem  thee 
from  all  sin."     And  this  I  found  of  wonderful  use  to 


510  HIS    RELIGIOUS    EXPERIENCE. 

CHAP,  me  in  all  my  course  ;  whereby  I  was  kept  from  sink- 
— ^  ings  of  heart,  and  did  beat  Satan,  as  it  were,  with 
1624.  jjjs  Q^n  weapons.  And  I  saw  Christ  teaching  me 
this  before  any  man  preached  any  such  thing  unto 
me.  And  so  the  Lord  did  help  me  to  loathe  myself 
in  some  measure,  and  to  say  oft.  Why  shall  I  seek 
the  glory  and  good  of  myself,  who  am  the  greatest 
enemy,  worse  than  the  Devil  can  be,  against  myself; 
which  self  ruins  me,  and  blinds  me,  &c.  And  thus 
God  kept  my  heart  exercised,  and  here  I  began  to 
forsake  my  loose  company  wholly,  and  to  do  what  I 
could  to  work  upon  the  hearts  of  other  scholars,  and 
to  humble  them,  and  to  come  into  a  way  of  holy 
walking  in  our  speeches  and  otherwise.  But  yet  I 
had  no  assurance  Christ  was  mine. 

4.  The  Lord  therefore  brought  Dr.  Preston  to 
preach  upon  that  text,  1  Cor.  i.  30,  "  Christ  is  made 
unto  us  wisdom,  righteousness,  sanctification,  and 
redemption."  And  when  he  had  opened  how  all  the 
good  I  had,  all  the  redemption  I  had,  it  was  from 
Jesus  Christ,  I  did  then  begin  to  prize  him,  and  he 
became  very  sweet  unto  me,  although  I  had  heard, 
many  a  time,  Christ  freely  offered  by  his  ministry,  if 
I  would  come  in,  and  receive  him  as  Lord,  and  Sa- 
viour, and  husband.  But  I  found  my  heart  ever  un- 
willing to  accept  of  Christ  upon  these  terms.  I 
found  them  impossible  for  me  to  keep  [on]  that  con- 
dition ;  and  Christ  was  not  so  sweet  as  my  lust. 
But  now  the  Lord  made  himself  sweet  to  me,  and  to 
embrace  him,  and  to  give  up  myself  unto  him.  But 
yet,  after  this,  I  had  many  fears  and  doubts. 

5.  I  found,  therefore,  the  Lord  revealing  free 
mercy,  and  that  all  my  help  was  in  that  to  give  me 


THOMAS    WELDE,  OF    ROXBURY.  511 

Christ,  and  to  enable  me  to  believe  in  Christ,  and  chap. 

'  .  ,  XXIV. 

accept  of  him  ;   and  here  I  did  rest.  

6.  The  Lord  also  letting  me  see  my  own  constant  ^^^^• 
vileness  in  everything,  put    me    to    this  question. 
Why  did  the  Lord  Jesus  keep  the  law,  had  no  guile 

in  his  heart,  had  no  unbrokenness,  but  holiness 
there  ?  Was  it  not  for  them  that  did  want  it  1  And 
here  I  saw  Christ  Jesus's  righteousness  for  a  poor 
sinner's  ungodliness  ;  but  yet  questioned  whether 
ever  the  Lord  would  apply  this  and  give  this  unto  me. 

7.  The  Lord  made  me  see  that  so  many  as  receive 
him,  he  gives  power  to  be  the  sons  of  God.     And  I   \°^li 
saw  the  Lord  gave  me  a  heart  to  receive  Christ  with 

a  naked  hand,  even  naked  Christ ;  and  so  the  Lord 
gave  me  peace. 

And  thus  I  continued  till  I  was  six  years'  stand-  i6  25. 
ing  ;  and  then  went,  half  a  year  before  I  was  Master 
of  Arts,  to  Mr.  Weld's  house, ^  at   Tarling,  in  Es- 


*  Thomas  Welde  was  educated  he  -went  to  Ireland  with  Lord 
at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  Forbes,  but  came  back  to  England, 
where  he  received  the  degree  of  A.  and  was  ejected  from  his  living  in 
B.  in  1613,  and  of  A.  M.  in  1618.  1662.  Whilst  in  New-England  he 
He  arrived  at  Boston  June  5,  1632,  took  an  active  part  in  the  proceed- 
and  in  July  was  ordained  the  first  ing  against  I\Irs.  Hutchinson,  and  in 
minister  of  the  church  in  Roxbury.  166-1  published  in  London  a  book 
In  November  following,  John  Eliot  entitled  "  A  Short  Story  of  the 
was  settled  as  his  colleague.  In  Rise,  Reign  and  Ruin  of  the  Anti- 
1639  he  assisted  his  colleague  and  nomians,  Familists,  and  Libertines, 
Richard  Mather  in  making  the  New-  that  infected  the  Churches  of  New- 
England  Version  of  the  Psalms ;  England,"  and  the  same  year  a 
and  in  1641  was  sent  with  Hugh  Vindication  of  the  New-England 
Peters  to  England  as  an  agent  of  Churches.  His  son  Edmund  grad- 
the  Colony.  In  1646,  when  Ed-  uated  at  Harvard  College  in  1650, 
ward  Winslow  was  sent  out  to  an-  and  was  settled  in  Ireland.  Another 
swer  Gorton's  complaint,  Peters  son,  John,  was  a  minister  at  Riton, 
and  Weld  were  dismissed  from  the  in  the  county  of  Durham.  A  third 
agency,  and  desired  to  return  home,  son,  Thomas,  remained  in  New- 
But  they  both  preferred  to  remain  England,  whose  son  Thomas  grad- 
in  England.  Weld  was  afterwards  uated  at  Harvard  College  in  1671, 
settled  in  the  ministry  at  Gateshead,  and  was  the  first  minister  of  Dun- 
in  the  bishoprick  of  Durham,  oppo-  stable,  N.  H.  See  notes  on  pages 
site  Newcastle.     Hutchinson  says  135  and  365  ;  Newcourt's  Reperto- 


512 


THOMAS    HOOKER,  OF    HARTFORD. 


1626. 


sex;  where  I  enjoyed  the  blessing  of  his  and  Mr. 
Hooker's  ^  ministry  at  Chelmesfoord.^  But  before  I 
came  there,  I  was  very  solicitous  what  would  become 
of  me  when  I  was  Master  of  Arts  ;  for  then  my  time 
and  portion  would   be   spent.     But   when  I   came 


rium,  ii.  578  ;  Calamy's  Noncon. 
Mem.  ii.  181  ;  Wintlirop,  i.  77,  82, 
258,  ii.  25  ;  Hutchinson's  Mass.  i. 
98,  149,  ii.  492,  504;  Mass.  Hist. 
Coll.  xxviii.  248. 

^  Thomas  Hooker,  "  the  Light  of 
the  Western  Churches,"  as  Cotton 
Mather  calls  him,  and  "the  father 
and  pillar  of  the  churches  of  Con- 
necticut," according  to  Trumbull, 
was  born  at  Marefield,  in  Leicester- 
shire, about  the  year  1580.  He 
was  educated  at  Emmanuel  College, 
Cambridge,  where  he  took  the  de- 
gree of  A.  B.  in  1607,  and  of  A.  M, 
in  1611,  and  was  elected  to  a  fellow- 
ship. In  1626  he  was  chosen  lec- 
turer at  Chelmsford,  in  Essex.  Af- 
ter preaching  here  four  years  with 
great  acceptance,  he  was  obliged, 
on  account  of  his  Nonconformity,  to 
relinquish  his  ministry,  and  set  up  a 
grammar  school  at  Little  Baddow, 
near  Chelmsford,  where  he  had  John 
Eliot,  afterwards  the  Indian  Apostle, 
for  his  usher.  Having  been  cited 
before  the  spiritual  court  sitting  at 
Chelmsford,  and  bound  over  to  ap- 
pear before  the  High  Commission, 
he  judged  it  prudent  to  retire  into 
Holland,  where  he  preached  as  a 
colleague  to  the  celebrated  Dr.  Ames 
of  Rotterdam.  But  hearing  that 
many  of  his  friends  in  Essex  were 
about  emigrating  to  New-England, 
he  accepted  their  invitation  to  ac- 
company them  as  their  pastor.  For 
this  purpose  he  returned  to  England, 
and  narrowly  escaped  arrest  by  the 
pursuivants,  and  went  on  board  the 
ship  at  the  Downs  in  disguise.  In 
company  with  Cotton,  Stone,  and 
Havnes,  he  arrived  at  Boston  Sept. 
4,  ioP.S,  and  on  the  11th  of  October 
was  chosen  pastor  of  the  church  at 
Newtown,  (Cambridge,)  Mr.  Stone 
being  chosen  teacher.  In  May,  1636, 


he  removed  with  his  colleague  and 
most  of  his  congregation  to  Hart- 
ford, on  Connecticut  river,  where  he 
remained  till  he  died  of  an  epidemic 
disease,  July  7,  1647.  Winthrop, 
speaking  of  the  ravages  of  this  epi- 
demic, says,  "But  that  which  made 
the  stroke  more  sensible  and  griev- 
ous both  to  them  (at  Connecticut,) 
and  to  all  the  country,  was  the  death 
of  that  faithful  servant  of  the  Lord, 
Mr.  Thomas  Hooker,  pastor  of  the 
church  in  Hartford,  who,  for  piety, 
prudence,  wisdom,  zeal,  learning, 
and  what  else  might  make  him  ser- 
viceable in  the  place  and  time  he 
lived  in,  might  be  compared  with 
men  of  greatest  note  ;  and  he  shall 
need  no  other  praise  ;  the  fruits  of 
his  labors  in  both  Englands  shaU 
preserve  an  honorable  and  happy  re- 
membrance of  him  forever."  He 
left  a  widow,  Susan.  His  son  Sa- 
muel was  the  second  minister  of 
Farmington,  in  Connecticut,  and 
three  of  his  daughters,  Joanna,  Ma- 
ry, and  Sarah,  married  Rev.  Tho- 
mas Shepard,  of  Cambridge,  Rev. 
Roger  Newton,  the  first  minister  of 
Farmington,  and  Rev.  John  Wil- 
son, of  Medfield.  See  Mather,  i. 
302;  Winthrop,  i.  88,  108,  115, 
187,  ii.  310 ;  Morton's  Memorial, 
p.  237  ;  Trumbull's  Conn.  i.  293  ; 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  248. 

^  Chelmsford,  so  called  from  an 
ancient  ford  on  the  river  Chelmer, 
near  its  junction  with  the  Can,  is  a 
county-town  near  the  centre  of  Es- 
sex, 29  miles  east-northeast  of  Lon- 
don. It  is  the  great  thoroughfare 
between  London  and  the  towns  of 
Colchester,  Harwich  and  Braintree, 
and  the  county  of  Suffolk,  and  many 
parts  of  Norfolk.  Population  in 
1841,  6789.  See  Camden's  Britan- 
nia, p.  346. 


DOCTOR  Wilson's  lectureship.  513 

thither,  and  had  been  there  some  little  season,  until  chap. 

XXIV. 

I  was  ready  to  be  Master  of  Arts,  one  Dr.  Wilson^  

had  purposed  to  set  up  a  Lecture,^  and  given  £30  ^^^e. 
per  annum  to  the  maintenance  of  it.  And  when  I 
was  among  those  worthies  in  Essex,  w^here  we  had 
monthly  fasts,  they  did  propound  it  unto  me  to  take 
the  Lecture,  and  to  set  it  up  at  a  great  town  in  Es- 
sex, called  Cogshall  ;^  and  so  Mr.  Weld  especially 
pressed  me  unto  it,  and  wished  me  to  seek  God 
about  it.  And  after  fasting  and  prayer,  the  minis- 
ters in  those  parts  of  Essex  had  a  day  of  humiliation, 
and  they  did  seek  the  Lord  for  direction  where  to 
place  the  Lecture ;  and  toward  the  evening  of  that 
day  they  began  to  consider  whether  I  should  go  to 
Cogshall,  or  no.  Most  of  the  ministers  were  for  it, 
because  it  was  a  great  town,  and  they  did  not  know 
any  place  [that]  did  desire  it  but  they.  Mr.  Hooker 
only  did  object  against  my  going  thither  ;  for  being 
but  young  and  unexperienced,  and  there  being  an 
old,  yet  sly  and  malicious  minister  in  the  town,  who 
did  seem  to  give  way  to  it  to  have  it  there,  did 
therefore  say  it  w^as  dangerous  and  uncomfortable  for 
little  birds  to  build  under  the  nests  of  old  ravens  and 
kites. 

But  while  they  were  thus  debating  it,  the  town  of 

*  Perhaps  Dr.  Edmund  Wilson,  the  ceremonies,  and  they  lectured  on 
a  physician,  who  was  brother  of  our  market-days  and  Sunday  afternoons, 
John  Wilson,  of  the  First  Church,  as  supplemental  to  the  regular  priest, 
See  note  on  page  326,  and  W'ood"s  when  he  might  happen  to  be  idle,  or 
Fasti  Oxon.  i.  360,  (ed.  Bliss.)  given  to  black  and  white  surplices. 

*  These  Lectures,  says  Carlyle,  They  were  greatly  followed  by  the 
were  set  up  by  the  w^ealthy  Puri-  serious  part  of  the  conmmnity.  See 
tans  in  those  parts  of  the  country  note  ^  on  page  70,  and  Carlyle's 
which   were  insufficiently  supplied  Cromwell,  i.  50,  86-88. 

with  preachers.  The  lecturers  were  ^  CoggeshaU  (Great)  is  a  market 
generally  persons  who  were  not  in  town  in  Essex,  six  miles  from  Brain- 
priests'  orders,  having  scruples  about     tree.     Population  in  1841,  3408. 

33 


514  THE    LECTURE    ESTABLISHED    AT    EARLS-COLNE. 

£HAP  Earles-Colne,^   beins;    three   miles  off  from   Essex, 

XXIV.  .  . 

hearing  that  there  was   such  a  Lecture  to  be  given 

1626.  fj-eeiy^  and  considering  that  the  Lecture  might  enrich 
that  poor  town,  they  did  therefore,  just  at  this  time 
of  the  day,  come  to  the  place  where  the  ministers 
met,  viz.  at  Tarling,^  in  Essex,  and  desired  that  it 
might  be  settled  there  for  three  years ;  (for  no  longer 
was  it  to  continue  in  any  place,  because  it  was  con- 
ceived if  any  good  was  done,  it  would  be  within  such 
a  time ;  and  then,  if  it  went  away  from  them,  the 
people  in  a  populous  town  would  be  glad  to  maintain 
the  man  themselves  ;  or  if  no  good  was  done,  it  was 
pity  they  should  have  it  any  longer.)  And  when 
they  thus  came  for  it,  the  ministers,  with  one  joint 
consent,  advised  me  to  accept  of  the  people's  call, 
and  to  stay  among  them  if  I  found,  upon  my  preach- 
ing a  little  season  with  them,  that  they  still  contin- 
ued in  their  desires  for  my  continuance  there. 

And  thus  I,  who  was  so  young,  so  weak,  and  un- 
experienced, and  unfit  for  so  great  a  work,  was  called 
out  by  twelve  or  sixteen  ministers  of  Christ  to  the 
work  ;  which  did  much  encourage  my  heart  ;  and 
for  the  Lord's  goodness  herein  I  shall,  I  hope,  never 
forget  his  love.  For  I  might  have  been  cast  away 
upon  a  blind  place,  without  the  help  of  any  ministry 
about  me.  I  might  have  been  sent  to  some  gentle- 
man's house,  to  have  been  corrupted  with  the  sins 

'  There  are  four  parishes  hi  the  is  about  35  miles  north-east  from 

archdeaconryofColchester  known  by  London,  and  seven  north-west  from 

the  name  of  Colne,  so  called  from  Colchester.      Population    in    1841, 

their  situation  on  or  near  the  river  1385.      See   Newcourt's   Reperto- 

Colne,  distinguished  by  the  several  rium,  ii.  182  ;  Camden's  Britannia, 

additional  names  of  their  respective  pp.  350,  358. 

lords.     The  first  of  these  is  Colne-         ^  Terling  is  a  parish  four  miles 

Comitis,  or  Earls-Colne,   so   called  from  Witham.    Population  in  1841, 

from  the  sepulture  thereof  the  earls  921. 
of  Oxford,  lords  of  this  manor.     It 


SHEPARD  GOES  TO  EARLS-COLNE.  515 

in  it.    But  this  I  have  found  :  the  Lord  was  not  con-  chap. 

'  XXIV. 

tent  to  take  me  from  one  town  to  another,  but  from 

the  worst  town  I  think  in  the  world  to  the  best  place  i^^^* 
for  knowledge  and  learning,  viz.  to  Cambridge. 
And  there  the  Lord  was  not  content  to  give  me  good 
means,  but  the  best  means,  and  ministry,  and  help  of 
private  Christians  ;  for  Dr.  Preston  and  Mr.  Good- 
win^ were  the  most  able  men  for  preaching  Christ  in 
this  latter  age.  And  when  I  came  from  thence,  the 
Lord  sent  me  to  the  best  country  in  England,  viz. 
to  Essex,  and  set  me  in  the  midst  of  the  best  minis- 
try in  the  country  ;  by  whose  monthly  fasts  and  con- 
ferences I  found  much  of  God  ;  and  thus  the  Lord 
Jesus  provided  for  me  of  all  things  of  the  best. 

So  being  resolved  to  go  unto  Earles-Colne,  in  Es- 
sex, after  my  commencing  Master  of  Arts,  and  my  1627. 
sinful  taking  of  orders,  about  a  fortnight  after,  of  the 
Bishop  of  Peterborough,  viz.  B.  Dove,^  I  came  to  the 


'  Thomas  Goodwin  was  an  emi-  dent  of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford, 
nent  Puritan  divine,  born  at  Rollesby,  In  165.3  he  was  appointed  one  of  the 
in  Norfolk,  Oct.  5,  1600.  He  was  Triers  of  preachers,  and  at  the  Re- 
educated in  Christ's  College,  Cam-  storation  in  1660  was  removed  from 
bridge,  and  was  a  Fellow  of  Catha-  his  presidency.  Whereupon  he  re- 
rine  Hall.  In  1628,  he  was  chosen  tired  to  London,  and  died  there  Feb. 
to  succeed  Dr.  Preston,  of  whom  he  23,  1680,  in  his  81st  year.  See 
was  a  great  admirer,  in  the  lecture-  Wood's  Fasti  Oxon.  ii.  179,  (ed. 
ship  at  Trinity  Church,  Cambridge,  Bliss)  ;  Calamy's  Nonconformists' 
which  he  held  till  1634,  when  he  Memorial,  i.  236  ;  Fuller's  Church 
left  the  University  and  relinquished  Hist.  iii.  447,  461-467. 
all  his  preferments,  from  unwilling-  ^  Dr.  Thomas  Dove  was  educated 
ness  to  conform.  He  remained  in  in  Pembroke  Hall,  Cambridge.  He 
retirement  till  1638,  when  he  re-  was  chaplain  to  Queen  Elizabeth, 
moved  to  Holland,  and  became  pas-  Dean  of  Norwich,  and  in  1600  was 
tor  of  a  congregation  at  Arnheim.  made  Bishop  of  Peterborough.  He 
At  the  beginning  of  the  Long  Par-  was  a  very  ornate  and  florid  preach- 
liament  in  1640,  he  returned  to  er ;  and  Queen  Elizabeth,  when  she 
England,  and  became  one  of  the  first  heard  him,  profanely  said  "  she 
Assembly  of  Divines  at  Westmin-  thought  the  Holy  Ghost  was  de- 
ster,  being  one  of  the  five  Dissent-  scended  again  in  this  Dove."  He 
ing  Brethren,  or  Congregationalists.  died  in  1631.  See  Harington's 
He  was  a  favorite  of  Cromwell,  Nugae  Antique,  ii.  206,  (ed.  Park); 
who  in  1650  appointed  him  Presi-  Fuller's  Ch.  Hist.  iii.  368. 


516 


THE    HARLAKENDEN    FAMILY. 


S-S^P-  town,  and  boarded  in  Mr.  Cosins  his  house,  an  aeed, 

XXIV.  ,     ,  '  o       ? 

but  godly  and  cheerful   Christian,  and  schoolmaster 

^^^^*  in  the  town,  and  by  whose  society  I  was  much  re- 
freshed, there  being  not  one  man  else  in  all  the  town 
that  had  any  godliness  but  him  that  I  could  under- 
stand. So  having  preached  upon  the  Sabbath  day 
out  of  2  Cor.  V.  19,  all  the  town  gave  me  a  call,  and 
set  to  their  hands  in  writing  ;  and  so  I  saw  God 
would  have  me  to  be  there  ;  but  how  to  be  there, 
and  continue  there,  I  could  not  tell.  Yet  I  sinfully 
got  a  license  to  officiate  the  cure,  of  the  Bishop  of 
London's  register,^  before  my  name  was  known,  and 
by  virtue  of  that  I  had  much  help. 

But  when  I  had  been  here  a  while,  and  the  Lord 
had  blessed  my  labors  to  divers  in  and  out  of  the 
town,  especially  to  the  chief  house  in  the  town,  the 
Priory,^  to  Mr.  Harlakenden's  children,  where  the 
Lord  wrought  mightily  upon  his  eldest  son,  Mr. 
Richard,^  (now  dwelling   there,)  and   afterward   on 

'  The  diocese  of  London  includes  son  of  Roger  Harlakenden,   Esq., 

Essex.     Mountain  was  at  this  time  who  in  Sept.  1583,  purchased  of  the 

Bishop  of  the  diocese.  Earl   of  Oxford,   for    the    sum   of 

^  In  the  time  of  William  the  Con-  .£"2000,  the  manor  and  park  of 
queror,  Aubrey  de  Vere,  and  Beat-  Earls-Colne,  containing  1800  acres 
rice  his  wife,  sister  of  the  Conquer-  of  land.  Richard  was  born  Dec.  21, 
or,  founded  in  the  parish  of  Earls-  1600,  married  in  May,  1630,  Alice, 
Colne  a  small  convent  or  priory,  daughter  of  Henry  Mildmay,  of 
which  he  dedicated  to  St.  Andrew.  Graces,  Essex,  who  was  a  cousin 
Weever,  whose  book  was  published  of  our  Gov.  Winthrop,  and  died 
in  1631,  says  that  the  house  was  Sept.  4,  1677.  His  name  is  men- 
standing  in  his  time,  converted  into  tioned  in  the  records  of  the  proprie- 
a  private  dwelling-place,  as  also  the  tors  of  Cambridge  under  the  date  of 
old  chapel,  in  which  had  been  buried  1632,  as  one  of  "  Mr.  Hooker's  or 
thirteen  earls  of  Oxford.  See  New-  the  Braintree  company,"  the  first 
court's  Repertorium,  ii.  183  ;  Wee-  settlers  of  that  town.  Whatever 
ver's  Funeral  Monuments,  p.  614  ;  rights  he  may  have  thus  acquired, 
Dugdale's  Monasticon  Anglicauum,  he  forfeited  by  not  coming  over, 
i.  436.  Being  the  eldest  son  and  heir,  he 

^  Richard  Harlakenden  was  the  probably  felt  it  his  duty  to  remain 

eldest  son  of  Richard  Harlakenden,  on  his  paternal  estate,  in  which  re- 

a  gentleman  of  ancient  family  and  solution  he  was  doubtless  confirmed 

good  estate,   who  was  the  second  by  his  brother's  early  death  in  the 


shepard's  mode  of  preaching.  517 

Mr.  Ro2:er,^  who  came  over  with  me  to  New-Ena;-  chap. 

11-  XXIV. 

land,  and  died  here,  Satan  then  began  to  rage,  and  ^^ — — 
the  commissaries,  registers,  and  others,  began  to  ^^^'''• 
pursue  me,  and  to  threaten  me,  as  thinking  I  was  a 
non-conformable  man,  when,  for  the  most  of  that 
time,  I  was  not  resolved  either  way,  but  was  dark  in 
those  things.  Yet  the  Lord,  having  work  to  do  in 
the  place,  kept  me,  a  poor,  ignorant  thing,  against 
them  all,  until  such  time  as  my  work  was  done,  by 
strange  and  wonderful  means.  Notwithstanding  all 
the  malice  of  the  ministers  round  about  me,  the  Lord 
had  one  way  or  other  to  deliver  me. 

The  course  I  took  in  my  preaching  was,  first,  to 
show  the  people  their  misery  ;  secondly,  the  reme- 
dy, Christ  Jesus ;  thirdly,  how  they  should  walk 
answerable  to  his  mercy,  being  redeemed  by  Christ. 
And  so  I  found  the  Lord  putting  forth  his  strength 
in  my  extreme  weakness,  and  not  forsaking  of  me 
when  I  was  so  foolish,  as  I  have  wondered  since  why 
the  Lord  hath  done  any  good  to  me  and  by  me. 

Colony.  See  Morant's  Hist,  of  Es-  pastor  at  Newtown,  (Cambridge,) 
sex,  ii.  211  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  \-ii.  where  he  purchased  Deputy-Gov- 
10,  xxviii.  314,  315.  ernor  Dudley's  estate.  He  died 
^  Roger  Harlakenden,  the  second  Nov.  17,  1638,  of  the  small  pox, 
son,  was  born  Oct.  1,  1611,  and  aged  27.  In  his  will,  which  is  in 
married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  God-  the  Probate  Records  of  Suffolk,!, 
frey  Bosseville,  Esq.,  of  Gunth-  13,  he  mentions  his  estate  in  Eng- 
wayte,  in  Yorkshire,  June  4,  1635,  land,  "  Colne  Park,  or  the  Little 
two  months  before  he  embarked  for  Lodge."  Winthrop  says  "  he  was 
New-England.  He  came  with  Shep-  a  very  godly  man,  and  of  good  use 
ard  in  the  Defence,  in  Aug.  1635,  both  in  the  commonwealth  and  in  the 
bringing  with  him  his  wife  and  his  church.  He  was  buried  with  mili- 
sister  Mabell,  born  Sept.  27,  1614,  tary  honor,  because  he  was  lieuten- 
and  who  afterwards  married  John  ant  colonel.  He  left  behind  a  vir- 
Haynes,  Governor  of  Connecticut,  tuous  gentlewoman  and  two  daugh- 
who  had  large  estates  in  Essex,  and  ters.  He  died  in  great  peace,  and 
had  come  over  two  years  before,  left  a  sweet  memorial  behind  him  of 
Roger  Harlakenden  was  chosen  an  his  piety  and  virtue."  See  Win- 
Assistant  in  May,  1636,  and  was  re-  throp,  i.  278;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
elected  the  two  following  years,  xxviii.  268,  315  ;  Newell's  Cam- 
He    settled    with    his    friend    and  bridge  Church-Gath.  in  1636,  p.  49. 


518  LAUD  FORBIDS  HIM  TO  PREACH. 

So  the  time  of  three  years  being  expired,  the  peo- 
ple would  not  let  me  go,  but  gathered  about  £40 
1630.  yearly  for  me  ;  and  so  I  was  intended  to  stay  there, 
if  the  Lord  would,  and  prevailed  to  set  up  the  Lec- 
ture in  the  town  of  Towcester,  where  I  was  born,  as 
knowing  no  greater  love  I  could  express  to  my  poor 
friends  than  thus ;  and  so  Mr.  Stone,  (Dr.  Wilson 
giving  way  thereto,)  had  the  Lecture,  and  went  to 
Towcester  with  it,  where  the  Lord  was  with  him. 
And  thus  I  saw  the  Lord's  mercy  following  me  to 
make  me  a  poor  instrument  of  sending  the  Gospel  to 
the  place  of  my  nativity. 

So  when  I  had  preached  a  while  at  Earles-Colne, 
about  half  a  year,  the  Lord  saw  me  unfit  and  unwor- 
thy to  continue  me  there  any  longer  ;  and  so  the 
Bishop  of  London,  Mountain,  being  removed  to  York, 
and  Bishop  Laud,^  (now  Archbishop,)  coming  in  his 
place,  a  fierce  enemy  to  all  righteousness,  and  a  man 
fitted  of  God  to  be  a  scourge  to  his  people,  he  pre- 
Dec.  sently,  (having  been  not  long  in  the  place,)  sent  for 
^^'  me  up  to  London  ;  and  there,  never  asking  me 
whether  I  would  subscribe,  (as  I  remember,)  but 
what  I  had  to  do  to  preach  in  his  diocese,  chiding 
also  Dr.  Wilson  for  setting  up  this  Lecture  in  his 
diocese,  after  many  railing  speeches  against  me,  for- 
bade me  to  preach ;  and  not  only  so,  but  if  I  went  to 
preach  any  where  else,  his  hand  would  reach  me. 
And  so  God  put  me  to  silence  there,  which  did 
somewhat  humble  me  ;  for  I  did  think  it  was  for  my 
sins  the  Lord  set  him  thus  against  me. 

[I  was   inhibited  from  preaching  in  the  diocese  of 

*  "  Our  great  enemy,"  as  Win-     on  page  42G.     See  Fuller's  Church 
throp  calls  him,  ii.  31.     See  note  '     Hist.  iii.  292,  471-477. 


laud's  harsh  treatment  of  him.  519 

London  bv  Dr.  Laud,  bishop  of  that  diocese.     As  chap. 

•'  .  '  ^.  .  XXIV. 

soon  as  I  came   in  the   morning,  about  eight  of  the  -^ 

clock,  falline:  into  a  fit  of  ra2;e,  he  asked  me  what  i^^o. 

.  .  .  Dec. 

degree  I  had  taken  in  the  University.  I  answered  le.' 
him  I  was  a  Master  of  Arts.  He  asked,  Of  what  Col- 
lege ?  I  answered.  Of  Emmanuel.  He  asked,  how 
long  I  had  lived  in  his  diocese.  I  answered.  Three 
years  and  upwards.  He  asked,  who  maintained  me 
all  this  while,  charging  me  to  deal  plainly  with  him  ; 
adding  withal,  that  he  had  been  more  cheated  and 
equivocated  with  by  some  of  my  malignant  faction, 
than  ever  was  man  by  Jesuit.  At  the  speaking  of 
which  words  he  looked  as  though  blood  would  have 
gushed  out  of  his  face,  and  did  shake  as  if  he  had 
been  haunted  with  an  ague  fit,  to  my  apprehen- 
sion, by  reason  of  his  extreme  malice  and  secret 
venom.  I  desired  him  to  excuse  me.  He  fell  then 
to  threaten  me,  and  withal  to  bitter  railing,  calling 
me  all  to  naught,  saying,  "  You  prating  coxcomb, 
do  you  think  all  the  learning  is  in  your  brain  ?"  He 
pronounced  his  sentence  thus,  "  I  charge  you  that 
you  neither  preach,  read,  marry,  bury,  or  exercise 
any  ministerial  function  in  any  part  of  my  diocese  ; 
for  if  you  do,  and  I  hear  of  it,  I'll  be  upon  your  back, 
and  follow  you  wherever  you  go,  in  any  part  of  the 
kingdom,  and  so  everlastingly  disenable  you."  I 
besought  him  not  to  deal  so  in  regard  of  a  poor  town. 
And  here  he  stopped  me  in  what  I  was  going  on  to 
say.  "A  poor  town  !  You  have  made  a  company  of 
seditious,  factious  bedlams.  And  what  do  you  prate 
to  me  of  a  poor  town  ?"  I  prayed  him  to  suffer  me 
to  catechize  in  the  Sabbath  days  in  the  afternoon. 
He  replied,   "  Spare  your  breath.     I'll  have  no  such 


520  SHEPARD    SEES    THE    SIN    OF    CONFORMITY. 

^^^p.  fellows  prate  in  my  diocese.     Get  you  gone  ;   and 

now  make  your  complaints  to  whom  you  will."     So 

away  I  went ;   and  blessed  be  God  that  I  may  go  to 
Him.] ' 

Yet  when  I  was  thus  silenced,  the  Lord  stirred  me 
up  friends.  The  house  of  the  Harlakendens  were  so 
many  fathers  and  mothers  to  me  ;  and  they  and  the 
people  would  have  me  live  there,  though  I  did  no- 
thing but  stay  in  the  place.  But  remaining  about 
1631.  half  a  year,  after  this  silencing,  among  them,  the 
Lord  let  me  see  into  the  evil  of  the  English  ceremo- 
nies, cross,  surplice,  and  kneeling.  And  the  Bishop 
of  London,  viz.  Laud,  coming  down  to  visit,  he  cited 
me  to  appear  before  him  at  the  Court  at  Reldon  ;^ 
where  I  appearing,  he  asked  me  what  I  did  in  the 
place  ;  and  I  told  him  I  studied.  He  asked  me, 
What  ?  I  told  him  the  Fathers.  He  replied,  I  might 
thank  him  for  that  ;  yet  charged  me  to  depart  the 
place.  I  asked  him.  Whither  should  I  go  ?  To  the 
University,  said  he.  I  told  him  I  had  no  means  to 
subsist  there.  Yet  he  charged  me  to  depart  the 
place. 

Now,  about  this  time,  I  had  great  desire  to  change 
my  estate  by  marriage  ;  and  I  had  been  praying 
three  years  before,  that  the  Lord  would  carry  me  to 
such  a  place  where  I  might  have  a  meet  yoke-fellow. 


'  This  passage  included  in  brack-  the  Church  of  England  in  this  day." 

ets,   is  inserted  from   Prince,  page  See  Laud"s  character  portrayed  in 

338,  who  says,    "  I  have  by  me  a  Hallam's  Const.  Hist.   i.  450,  (4th 

manuscript  of  Mr.  Shepard's,  writ-  ed.  London,  1842,)  and  Macaulay's 

ten  with  his  own  hand,  in  which  are  Essays,  i.  241,  (Phila.  1843.) 

these  words."  Prince  adds,  " 'Ihus  ^  iSo    in   the  manuscript,  and  in 

did  this  bishop,  a  professed  disciple  Jacie's    Letter,    Keldon;    both   un- 

of  the  meek  and  lowly  Jesus,  treat  doubtedly  errors  for  PehJon,  which 

one  of  the  most  pious,  humble,  dili-  is  a  parish  in  Essex,  five  miles  south 

gent  and  faithful  young  ministers  in  by  west  of  Colchester. 


WELD    IS    ARRESTED.  521 

And  I  had  a  call  at  this  time  to  ffo  to  Yorkshire,  to  chap. 

°  .      '  XXIV. 

preach  there  in  a  gentleman's  house.     But  I  did  not  

desire  to  stir  till  the  Bishop  tired  me  out  of  this  ^^^^* 
place.  For  the  Bishop  having  thus  charged  me  to 
depart,  and  being  two  days  after  to  visit  at  Dun- 
mow,^  in  Essex,  Mr.  Weld,  Mr.  Daniel  Rogers,^ 
Mr.  Ward,=^  Mr.  Marshall,'  Mr.  Wharton,  consulted 
together  whether  it  was  best  to  let  such  a  swine  to 
root  up  God's  plants  in  Essex,  and  not  to  give  him 
some  check.  Whereupon  it  was  agreed  upon  pri- 
vately at  Braintry,^  that  some  should  speak  to  him, 
and  give  him  a  check. 

So  Mr.  Weld  and  I,  travelling  together,  had  some 
thoughts  of  going  to  New-England.  But  w^e  did  think 
it  best  to  go  first  unto  Ireland,  and  preach  there, 
and  to  go  by  Scotland  thither.  But  when  w^e  came 
to  the  church,  Mr.  Weld  stood  and  heard  without, 
being  excommunicated  by  him.  I  being  more  free, 
went  within.  And  after  sermon,  Mr.  Weld  went  up 
to  hear  the  Bishop's  speech  ;  and  being  seen  to  fol- 
low the  Bishop,  the  first  thing  he  did  was  to  exam- 
ine Mr.  W^eld  what  he  did  to  follow  him,  and  to 
stand  upon  holy  ground.  Thereupon  he  w^as  com- 
mitted to  the  pursuivant,  and  bound  over  to  answer 

'  Dunmow  (Great)  is  a  market-  Massey.     See  note  *  on  page  112, 

town  on  the  western  bank   of  the  and  note  "  on  page  426. 

Chelmer,  12  miles  from  Chelmsford  ■•  Stephen  Marshall  was  a  celebra- 

and  38  miles  from  London.     Popu-  ted  Puritan  minister,  at  Weathers- 

lation  in  18-41,  2792.  field,  in  Essex,  and   afterwards  at 

^  Daniel  Rogers  was  the  son  of  Finchingfield,  in  the  same   county. 

Richard    Rogers,  of  Weathersfield,  See  Brook's  Lives  of  the  Puritans, 

mentioned  on  page  508,  and  brother  iii.    241-254;  Neal's  Puritans,  iv. 

of  Ezekiel  Rogers,  of  Rowley.    See  169;    Fuller's   Worthies,   i.   473; 

Brook's  Lives  of  the  Puritans,  iii.  Newcourt's  Repertorium,  ii.  265. 

149.  *  Braintree  is  a  market-town  in 

^  Either  old  Mr.  John  Ward,  of  Essex,    forty    miles    north-east    of 

Haverhill,  or  his  son   Samuel,   of  London,  and  eight  east  of  Dunmow. 

Ipswich,  or  Nathaniel,  of  Standon  Population  in  1841,  3670. 


522 


SHEPARD    ESCAPES    FROM    THE    PURSUIVANT. 


CHAP,  it  at  the  Hisrh  Commission.     But  when  Mr.  Weld 

XXIV 

''  was  pleading  for  himself,   and   that  it  was  ignorance 

1631.  that  made  him  come  in,  the  Bishop  asked  him  whither 
he  intended  to  go,  whether  to  New-England,  and  if 
so,  whether  I  would  go  with  him.  While  he  was 
thus  speaking,  I  came  into  the  crowd,  and  heard  the 
words.  Others  bid  me  go  away.  But  neglecting  to 
do  it,  a  godly  man  pulled  me  away  with  violence  out 
of  the  crowd  ;  and  as  soon  as  ever  I  was  gone,  the 
apparitor  calls  for  Mr.  Shepard,  and  the  pursuivant 
was  sent  presently  after  to  find  me  out.  But  he  that 
pulled  me  away,  Mr.  Holbeech  by  name,  a  school- 
master at  Felsted,  in  Essex,  hastened  our  horses, 
and  away  we  rid,  as  fast  as  we  could  ;  and  so  the 
Lord  delivered  me  out  of  the  hand  of  that  lion  a 
third  time.^ 

And  now  I  perceived  I  could  not  stay  in  Colne 
without  danger  ;  and  hereupon  receiving  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Ezekiel  Rogers,-  then  living  at  Rowly,  in 


'  The  preceding  accovint  is  inci- 
dentally confirmed  by  a  letter  dated 
Jan  9,  163'2,  written  to  John  Win- 
throp,  Jr.  by  Henry  Jacie,  a  celebra- 
ted Puritan  divine,  mentioned  by 
Wood,  in  his  Fasti  Oxon.  i.  435, 
(ed.  Bliss.)  He  says,  "  The  plague 
having  been  lately  at  Colchester,  the 
Bishop's  visit  was  fro-prid  persona 
at  Keldon.  There  he  excommuni- 
cated Mr.  Weld,  who  had  been  sus- 
pended about  a  month,  and  requir- 
ing Mr.  Rogers,  of  Dedham,  to  sub- 
scribe there,  he  refused  ;  so  he  sus- 
pended him.  Mr.  Shepard  he  charg- 
ed to  be  gone  out  of  his  diocese,  as 
one  that  kept  conventicles.  Mr. 
Weld,  after  excommunication,  com- 
ing into  a  church  where  the  Bishop 
was  visiting,  the  Bishop  spied  him, 
and  called  him,  and  asked  him  if  he 
were  on  this  side  New-England,  and 
if  he  were  not  excommunicated.  He 


answered.  Yes.  '  And  why  here 
then  ? '  He  hoped  he  had  not  offend- 
ed. '  But  he  would  make  him  an 
example  to  all  such.  Take  him, 
pursuivant.'  The  pursuivant  called 
Mr.  Shepard,  and  said  he  would 
rather  have  Shepard  ;  but  he  esca- 
ped, and  Mr.  Weld,  by  a  bond  of 
100  marks,  (others  bound  with  him) 
and  so  fled  to  Bergen."  See  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.  xxi.  236-238. 

^  Ezekiel  Rogers  was  the  second 
son  of  the  venerable  Richard  Rogers, 
the  minister  of  Weathersfield,  in 
Essex,  and  brother  of  Daniel  Ro- 
gers, mentioned  on  page  501,  who 
succeeded  his  father  in  the  same 
parish.  He  was  born  in  1590,  and 
at  the  early  age  of  thirteen  was  sent 
to  Cambridge,  where  took  the  de- 
gree of  A.  B.  at  Bennet  College  in 
1604,  and  of  A.  M.  at  Christ's  in 
1608.     On  leaving  the   University 


HE    LEAVES    EARLS-COLNE. 


523 


Yorkshire,  to  encouraofe  me  to  come  to  the  knight's  chap. 

XXIV 

house,  called  Sir  Richard  Darley,  dwelling  at  a  town ^ 

called  Buttercrambe,^  and  the  knight's  two  sons,  i63i. 
viz.  Mr.  Henry  and  Mr.  Richard  Darley,  promising 
me  j620  a  year  for  their  part,  and  the  knight  promis- 
ing me  my  table,  and  the  letters  sent  to  me  crying 
with  that  voice  of  the  man  of  Macedonia,  "  Come 
and  help  us,"  hereupon  I  resolved  to  follow  the 
Lord  to  so  remote  and  strange  a  place  ;  the  rather 
because  I  might  be  far  from  the  hearing  of  the  mali- 
cious Bishop  Laud,  who  had  threatened  me,  if  I 
preached  any  where.  So  when  I  was  determined  to 
go,  the  gentleman  sent  a  man  to  me  to  be  my  guide 
in  my  journey  ;  who  coming  for  me,  with  much  grief 
of  heart  I  forsook  Essex  and  Earles-Colne,  and  they 
me,  going,  as  it  were,  now  I  knew  not  whither. 


he  spent  five  or  six  years  as  chap- 
lain in  the  family  of  Sir  Francis  Bar- 
rington,  by  whom  he  was  presented 
to  the  benefice  of  Rowley,  in  York- 
shire. Here  he  remained  twenty 
years,  till  he  was  suspended,  as  he 
says,  for  refusing  to  read  the  Book 
of  Sports.  He  came  to  New-Eng- 
land in  1638,  with  some  twenty  fa- 
milies of  good  estate,  from  York- 
shire, and  though  earnestly  solicited 
to  settle  at  New  Haven,  he  com- 
menced a  new  plantation  between 
Ipswich  and  Newbury,  to  which 
was  given  the  name  of  Rowley, 
from  the  former  place  of  his  resi- 
dence and  ministry.  Johnson  says, 
that  these  Yorkshiremen  ' '  were  the 
first  people  that  set  upon  making  of 
cloth  in  the  western  world  ;  for 
which  end  they  built  a  fulling-mill, 
and  caused  their  little  ones  to  be 
very  diligent  in  spinning  cotton 
wool,  many  of  them  having  been 
clothiers  in  England."  He  preach- 
ed the  Election  Sermon  in  1643, 
and  also  preached  before  the  Synod 
at  Cambridge  in  1647.  Having 
met  with  many  misfortunes  in  losing 


two  wives  and  all  his  children,  hav- 
ing his  house  burnt  with  his  furni- 
ture and  library,  and  by  a  fall  from 
his  horse  losing  the  use  of  his  right 
arm,  he  died  Jan.  23,  1661,  aged  70. 
He  was  a  cousin  of  the  Rev.  Na- 
thaniel Rogers,  of  Ipswich,  and  he 
married  for  liis  second  wife  the 
daughter  of  the  Rev.  John  Wilson, 
of  Boston.  Winthrop  speaks  of  him 
as  "  a  man  of  special  note  in  Eng- 
land for  his  zeal,  piety,  and  other 
parts,  a  very  wise  man,  a  worthy 
son  of  a  worthy  father."  In  his 
will  he  left  to  Harvard  College  a 
reversionary  interest  in  his  real  es- 
tate, from  which  the  College  has 
derived  $5000  of  its  funds.  See 
Winthrop,  i.  278,  294,  324,  ii.  99, 
308  ;  Mather,  i.  369  ;  Brook's  Puri- 
tans, iii.  341  ;  Gage's  Hist,  of  Row- 
ley, pp.  5.5-67,  120-134  ;  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.  xxvii.  13,  xviii.  248. 

'  Buttercrambe  is  a  township  in 
the  parish  of  Bossall,  in  the  north 
riding  of  Yorkshire,  twelve  miles 
north-east  of  York,  pleasantly  situ- 
ated on  the  Derwent. 


524  HE    NARROWLY    ESCAPES    DROWNING. 

CHAP.      So  as  we  travelled,   (which  was  five  or  six  days 

XXIV 

^— ^  together,  near  unto  winter,)  the  Lord  sent  much  rain 
^^^^-  and  ill  weather,  insomuch  as  the  floods  were  up  when 
we  came  near  Yorkshire,  and  hardly  passable.  At 
last  we  came  to  a  town  called  Ferrybridge,^  where 
the  waters  were  up  and  ran  over  the  bridge,  for  half 
a  mile  together,  and  more.  So  we  hired  a  guide  to 
lead  us.  But  when  he  had  gone  a  little  way,  the 
violence  of  the  water  was  such,  that  he  first  fell  in, 
and  after  him  another  man,  who  was  near  drowning 
before  my  eyes.  Whereupon  my  heart  was  so  smit- 
ten with  fear  of  the  danger,  and  my  head  so  dizzied 
with  the  running  of  the  water,  that  had  not  the  Lord 
immediately  upheld  me,  and  my  horse  also,  and  so 
guided  it,  I  had  certainly  perished  that  bout.  But 
the  Lord  was  strong  in  my  weakness  ;  and  we  went 
on,  by  some  little  direction,  upon  the  bridge,  and  at 
last  I  fell  in  ;  yet  in  a  place  where  the  waters  were 
not  so  violent,  but  I  sat  upon  my  horse  ;  which,  be- 
ing a  very  good  horse,  clambered  up  upon  the  bridge 
again.  But  Mr.  Parley's  man,  for  fear  of  me,  fell  in 
also,  but  came  out  safe  again  ;  and  so  we  came  to 
the  dry  land,  where  we  had  a  house,  and  shifted 
ourselves,  and  went  to  prayer,  and  blessed  God  for 
this  wonderful  preservation  of  us.  And  the  Lord 
made  me  then  to  profess  that  I  looked  now  upon  my 
life  as  a  new  life  given  unto  me  ;  which  I  saw  good 
reason  to  give  up  unto  him  and  his  service.  And 
truly,  about  this  time,  the  Lord,  that  had  dealt  only 
gently  with  me  before,  began  to  afllict  me,  and  to  let 
me  taste  how  good  it  was  to  be  under  his  tutoring. 
So  I  came  to  York  late  upon  Saturday  night ;   and 

'  Ferrybridge  is  20  miles  south-southwest  of  York,  on  the  river  Aire. 


HE    RESIDES    IN    YORKSHIRE.  525 

having  refreshed  ourselves  there,  I  came  to  Butter-  chap. 

XXIV. 

crambe,   to  Sir  Richard's  house,   that   night,    very '- 

wet  and  late,  which  is  about  seven  miles  off  from  i63i. 
York. 

Now  as  soon  as  I  came  into  the  house,  I  found 
divers  of  them  at  dice  and  tables  ;  and  Mr.  Richard 
Darley,  one  of  the  brothers,  being  to  return  to  Lon- 
don the  Monday  after,  and  being  desirous  to  hear  me 
preach,  sent  me  speedily  to  my  lodging,  (the  best  in 
the  house,)  and  so  I  preached  the  day  after  once  ; 
and  then  he  departed  the  day  after,  having  carefully 
desired  my  comfortable  abode  there.  But  I  do  re- 
member I  never  was  so  low  sunk  in  my  spirit  as 
about  this  time.  For,  first,  I  was  now  far  from  all 
friends.  Secondly,  I  was,  I  saw,  in  a  profane  house, 
not  any  sincerely  good.  Thirdly,  I  was  in  a  vile, 
wicked  town  and  country.  Fourthly,  I  was  un- 
known, and  exposed  to  all  wrongs.  Fifthly,  I  was 
unsufficient  to  do  any  work,  and  my  sins  were  upon 
me,  &c.  ;  and  hereupon  I  was  very  low,  and  sunk 
deep.  Yet  the  Lord  did  not  leave  me  comfortless  ; 
for  though  the  lady  was  churlish,  yet  Sir  Richard 
was  ingenious,  and  I  found  in  the  house  three  ser- 
vants, (viz.  Thomas  Fugill,^  Mrs.  Margaret  Toute- 
ville,^  the  knight's  kinswoman,  that  was  afterward 
my  wife,  and  Ruth  Bushell,  who  married  to  Edward 


*  Thomas  Fugill  was  one  of  the  out  of  office,   and  excommunicated 

principal  settlers  of  New-Haven,  in  from  the  Church.     Soon  afterwards 

1638,  one  of  the  seven  pillars  of  the  he  returned,  it  is  believed,  to  Lon- 

church  there,  and  the  first  secretary  don."      See   Trumbull's   Conn.    i. 

of  the   Colony,    with    the   title   of  99,  106  ;    Bacon's  Historical  Disc. 

"  public  notary."     Bacon  says  that  pp.  24,  317 ;  Kingsley's  Hist.  Disc. 

"  in  the   year   1645,  he   fell  under  pp.  83,  163. 

censure  for  having  made  an  incorrect  ^  She  was  at  this  time   27  years 

record  for  his  own  advantage.     He  old.     See  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii. 

was  very  sternly  dealt  with,  turned  268. 


526 


HE    IS    MARRIED. 


CHAP.  Michelson/)  very  careful  of  me  ;  which  somewhat 

refreshed  me. 

But  it  happened,  that  when  I  had  been  there  a  little 
while,  there  was  a  marriage  of  one  Mr.  Allured,^ 
a  most  profane  young  gentleman,  to  Sir  Richard's 
daughter  ;  and  I  was  desired  to  preach  at  their  mar- 
riage. At  which  sermon  the  Lord  first  touched  the 
heart  of  Mistress  Margaret  with  very  great  terrors 
for  sin  and  her  Christ-less  estate.  Whereupon  others 
began  to  look  about  them,  especially  the  gentlewo- 
man lately  married,  Mrs.  Allured ;  and  the  Lord 
brake  both  their  hearts  very  kindly.  Then  others 
in  the  family,  viz.  Mr.  Allured,  he  fell  to  fasting  and 
prayer  and  great  reformation.  Others  also  were 
reformed,  and  their  hearts  changed  ;  the  whole  fam- 
ily brought  to  external  duties,  but  I  remember  none 
in  the  town  or  about  it  brought  home.  And  thus 
the  Lord  was  with  me,  and  gave  me  favor,  and 
friends  and  respect  of  all  in  the  family ;  and  the  Lord 
taught  me  much  of  his  goodness  and  sweetness.  And 
when  he  had  fitted  a  wife  for  me,  he  then  gave  me 
her,  who  was  a  most  sweet,  humble  woman,  full  of 
Christ,  and  a  very  discerning  Christian,  a  wife  who 
was  most  incomparably  loving  to  me,  and  every  way 
amiable  and  holy,  and  endued  with  a  very  sweet 
spirit  of  prayer.  And  thus  the  Lord  answered  my 
desires.     When  my  adversaries  intended  most  hurt 


'  Edward  Mitchenson  and  Ruth  ^  There  was  a   Colonel  Alured, 

his  wife  both  came  over  to  New-  and  some  others  of  the  name,  from 

England,  and  were  members  of  the  Yorkshire,     who    were    somewhat 

Church  in  Cambridge.    Their  child-  conspicuous    in    the    Civil     Wars, 

ren  were  Ruth,  Bethia,  Edward,  and  See  Carlyle's  Cromwell,  i.  57,  ii. 

Elizabeth.  See  Newell's  Cambridge  79,80. 
Ch,  Gathering  in  1636,  p.  56. 


HE  REMOVES  TO  NORTHUMBERLAND.  527 

to  me,  the  Lord  was  then  best  unto  me,  and  used  me  chap. 

.X.X1  V  • 

the  more  kmdly  in  every  place.     For  the  Lord  turn 

ed  all  the  sons,  and  Sir  Richard,  and  Mr.  Allured, 
so  unto  me,  that  they  not  only  gave  her  freely  to  be 
my  wife,  but  enlarged  her  portion  also  ;  and  thus  I 
did  marry  the  best  and  fittest  woman  in  the  world 
unto  me,  after  I  had  preached  in  this  place  about  a 
twelvemonth.  For  which  mercy  to  me  in  my  exiled  16  32. 
condition  in  a  strange  place,  I  did  promise  the  Lord 
that  this  mercy  should  knit  my  heart  the  nearer  to 
Him,  and  that  his  love  should  constrain  me.  But  I 
have  ill  requited  the  Lord  since  that  time,  and  forgot 
myself,  and  my  promise  also. 

But  now  when  we  were  married,  in  the  year  1632, 
she  was  unwilling  to  stay  at  Buttercrambe,  and  I 
saw  no  means  or  likelihood  of  abode  there.  For 
Bishop  Neale^  coming  up  to  York,  no  friends  could 
procure  my  liberty  of  him,  without  subscription. 
And  hereupon  the  Lord  gave  me  a  call  to  Northum- 
berland, to  a  town  called  Heddon,  five  miles  beyond 
Newcastle.^  Which  when  I  had  considered  of,  and 
saw  no  place  but  that  to  go  unto,  and  saw  the  people 
very  desirous  of  it,  and  that  I  might  preach  there  in 
peace,  being  far  from  any  Bishops,  I  did  resolve  to 
depart  thither.  And  so  being  accompanied  with  Mr. 
Allured  to  the  place,  I  came  not  without  many  fears 
of  enemies,  and  my  poor  wife  full  of  fears.  It  was 
not  a  place  of  subsistence  with  any  comfort  to  me 

*  "  Bishop    Neile    and    Bishop         ^  Newcastle  is   the  county-town 

Laud  were  a  frightfully  ceremonial  of  Northumberland,  situated  on  the 

pair  of  Bishops  ;  the  fountain  they  left   bank   of  the   Tyne,  ten  miles 

of  innumerable  tendencies  to  Papis-  from  the  sea,  and  273  from  London, 

try  and   the  old   clothes  of  Baby-  Population  in  1841,  49,860. 
Ion!"  SeeCarlyle's Cromwell,  i. 61. 


528  HE    PREACHES    ABOUT    NEWCASTLE. 

CHAP,  there.     But  the  good  Lord,  who  all  my  life  followed 

XXIV 

''  me,  made  this  place  the  fittest  for  me  ;   and  I  found 

1632.  jyiany  sweet  friends  and  Christian  acquaintance,  Mrs. 
Sherbourne  maintaining  me,  and  Mrs.  Fenwick  lend- 
ing us  the  use  of  her  house  ;  and  so  God  comforted 
us  in  our  solitary,  and  yet  married  condition,  many 
ways. 

Now  when  I  was  here,  the  Lord  blessed  my  poor 
labors  both  to  the  saints,  and  to  sundry  others  about 
and  in  Newcastle  ;  and  I  came  here  to  read  and 
know  more  of  the  ceremonies,  church  government 
and  estate,  and  the  unlawful  standing  of  Bishops  than 
in  any  other  place.    I  lived  at  Mrs.  Fenwick's  house 

1633,  for  a  time,  about  a  twelvemonth  or  half  a  year,  and 
then  we  went  and  dwelt  alone  in  a  town  near  Hed- 
don,  called  [blank],  in  a  house  which  we  found  haunt- 
ed with  the  Devil,  as  we  conceived.  For  when  we 
came  into  it,  a  known  witch  went  out  of  it  ;  and  be- 
ing troubled  with  noises  four  or  five  nights  together, 
we  sought  God  by  prayer  to  remove  so  sore  a  trial  ; 
and  the  Lord  heard  and  blessed  us  there,  and  re- 
moved the  trouble.  But  after  we  were  settled,  the 
Bishop  put  in  a  priest,  who  would  not  suffer  me  to 
preach  publicly  any  more.  Hereupon  the  means  was 
used  to  the  Bishop  of  Durham,  Bishop  Morton  ;  and 
he  professed  he  durst  not  give  me  liberty,  because 
Laud  had  taken  notice  of  me.  So  I  preached  up  and 
down  in  the  country,  and  at  last  privately  in  Mr. 
Fenwick's  house.  And  there  I  stayed  till  Mr.  Cot- 
ton, Mr.  Hooker,  Stone,  Weld,  went  to  New-Eng- 
land ;  and  hereupon  most  of  the  godly  in  England 
were  awakened,  and  intended  much  to  go  to  New- 
England.     And   I  having  a  call  by  divers  friends  in 


HIS    FIRST    SON    IS    BORN.  529 

New-England  to  come  over,  and  many  in  Old  Eng-  chap. 

land  desiring  me  to   go  over,   and  promising  to  go  ' 

with  me,  I  did  hereupon  resolve  to  go  thither,  espe-  ^^^s. 
cially  considering  the  season.  And  thus  the  Lord 
blessed  me  in  this  dark  country,  and  gave  me  a  son, 
called  Thomas,  anno  1633  ;  my  poor  wife  being  in 
sore  extremities  four  days,  by  reason  she  had  an  un- 
skilful midwife.  But  as  the  affliction  was  very  bitter, 
so  the  Lord  did  teach  me  much  by  it,  and  I  had  need 
of  it ;  for  I  began  to  grow  secretly  proud,  and  full  of 
sensuality,  delighting  my  soul  in  my  dear  wife  more 
than  in  my  God,  whom  I  had  promised  better  unto  ; 
and  my  spirit  grew  fierce  in  some  things,  and  secretly 
mindless  of  the  souls  of  the  people.  But  the  Lord, 
by  this  affliction  of  my  wife,  learnt  me  to  desire  to 
fear  him  more,  and  to  keep  his  dread  in  my  heart. 
And  so,  seeing  I  had  been  tossed  from  the  south  to 
the  north  of  England,  and  now  could  go  no  farther, 
I  then  began  to  listen  to  a  call  to  New-England. 

The  reasons  which  sw^ayed  me  to  come  to  New- 
England  were  many.  1.  I  saw  no  call  to  any  other 
place  in  Old  England,  nor  way  of  subsistence  in 
peace  and  comfort  to  me  and  my  family.  2.  Divers 
people  in  Old  England  of  my  dear  friends,  desired 
me  to  go  to  New-England,  there  to  live  together  ; 
and  some  went  before,  and  writ  to  me  of  providing  a 
place  for  a  company  of  us  ;  one  of  which  was  John 
Bridge  ;^  and  I  saw  divers  families  of  my  Christian 
friends  who  were  resolved  thither  to  go  with  me. 

3.  I  saw  the  Lord  departing  from  England  when  Mr. 

'  John  Bridge  was  at  Cambridge  had  a  son  Matthew.    SeeWinthrop, 

in  1632,  admitted  a  freeman  March  ii.   347,  3(i5  ;  Farmer's  Genealogi- 

4,  1635,  a  representative  in  1637,  cal  Register ;  Newell's  Church-Ga- 
and   a   deacon  of  the  church.     He  thering  at  Cambridge,  p.  53. 

34 


530  HIS    REASONS    FOR    GOING    TO    NEW-ENGLAND. 

CHAP.  Hooker  and  Mr.  Cotton  were  ^one,  and  I  saw  the 

XXIV. 

hearts  of  most  of  the  godly  set  and  bent   that  way  ; 

^^22-  and  I  did  think  I  should  feel  many  miseries  if  I  stayed 
behind.  4.  My  judgment  w^as  then  convinced  not 
only  of  the  evil  of  ceremonies,  but  of  mixed  commu- 
nion, and  joining  with  such  in  sacraments  ;  though  I 
ever  judged  it  lawful  to  join  with  them  in  preaching. 

5.  I  saw  it  my  duty  to  desire  the  fruition  of  all  God's 
ordinances,  which  I  could  not  enjoy  in  Old  England. 

6.  My  dear  wife  did  much  long  to  see  me  settled 
there  in  peace,  and  so  put  me  on  to  it.  7.  Although 
it  was  true  I  should  stay  and  suffer  for  Christ,  yet  I 
saw  no  rule  for  it  now  the  Lord  had  opened  a  door 
of  escape.  Otherwise,  I  did  incline  much  to  stay  and 
suffer,  especially  after  our  sea-storms.  8.  Though 
my  ends  were  mixed,  and  I  looked  much  to  my  own 
quiet,  yet  the  Lord  let  me  see  the  glory  of  those  lib- 
erties in  New-England,  and  made  me  purpose,  if 
ever  I  should  come  over,  to  live  among  God's  peo- 
ple, as  one  come  out  from  the  dead,  to  his  praise. 
Though  since  I  have  seen,  as  the  Lord's  goodness, 
so  my  own  exceeding  weakness  to  be  as  good  as  I 
thought  to  have  been. 

And  although  they  did  desire  me  to  stay  in  the 
north,  and  preach  privately,  yet,  1.  I  saw  that  this 
time  could  not  be  long  without  trouble  from  King 
Charles.  2.  I  saw  no  reason  to  spend  my  time  pri- 
vately, when  I  might  possibly  exercise  my  talent 
publicly  in  New-England.  3.  I  did  hope  my  going 
over  might  make  them  to  follow  me.  4.  I  consider- 
ed how  sad  a  thing  it  would  be  for  me  to  leave  my 
wife  and  child  (if  I  should  die)  in  that  rude  place  of 
the  north,  where  was  nothing  but  barbarous  wicked- 


HE  RETURNS  TO  EARLS-COLNE.  531 

ness  generally,  and  how  sweet  it  would  be  to  leave  chap. 

them  among  God's  people,  though  poor.     5.  My  lib -' 

erty  in  private  was  daily  threatened  ;  and  I  thought  i^^'*- 
it  wisdom  to  depart  before  the  pursuivants  came  out, 
for  so  I  might  depart  with  more  peace  and  lesser 
trouble  and  danger  to  me  and  my  friends.  And  I 
knew  not  Avhether  God  would  have  me  to  hazard  my 
person,  and  comfort  of  me  and  all  mine,  for  a  disor- 
derly manner  of  preaching  privately  (as  it  was  repu- 
ted,) in  those  parts. 

So  after  I  had  preached  my  farewell  sermon  at 
Newcastle,  I  departed  from  the  north  in  a  ship  laden 
with  coals  for  Ipswich,  about  the  beginning  of  June,  june. 
after  I  had  been  about  a  year  in  the  north,  the  Lord 
having  blessed  some  few  sermons  and  notes  to  divers 
in  Newcastle,  from  whom  I  parted,  filled  with  their 
love.  And  so  the  Lord  gave  us  a  speedy  voyage 
from  thence  to  Ipswich,^  in  Old  England,  whither  I 
came  in  a  disguised  manner,^  with  my  wife  and  child 
and  maid ;  and  stayed  awhile  at  Mr.  Russell's^  house, 
another  while  at  Mr.  Collins^  his  house,  and  then 
went  down  to  Essex,  to  the  town  where  I  had 
preached,  viz.  Earles-Colne,  to  Mr.  Richard  Harla- 
kenden's  house,  where  I  lived  privately,  but  with 
much  love  from  them  all,  as  also  from  Mr.  Joseph 
Cooke, ^  and  also  with  friends  at  London  and  North- 

'  Ipswich,  an  inland  port,  and  the  bridge.     See    Newell's   Cambridge 

capital  of  Suffolk,  is  situated  on  the  Church-Gatheriner,  pp.  47,  50. 

north-eastern  banks   of  the    united  •*  Perhaps  Edward  Collins,   who 

rivers  Gipping  and  Orwell,  69  miles  was   admitted   a   freeman    May  13, 

north-east  of  London.     Population  1640,  and  was  deacon  of  the  church 

in  1841,  24,940.  at  Cambridge.     See  Mather's  Mag- 

^  See  note  *  on  page  260.  nalia,  ii.  116  ;  Newell's  Cam.  Ch. 

^  Perhaps  John  Russell,  who  was  Gath.    p.    53;  Winthrop,    ii.  370; 

admitted  a  freeman  at  the  same  time  Farmer's  Genealogical  Register, 

with    Shepard    and    Harlakenden,  *  Joseph   Cooke   came   to  New- 

and  was  a  prominent  citizen  of  Cam-  England  in  1635  in  the  same  ship 


532  HE    RESOLVES    TO    GO    TO    NEW-ENGLAND. 

CHAP,  amptonshire.    And  truly  I  found  this  time  of  my  life, 

XXIV.  ^  ' 

-*  wherein  I  was  so  tossed  up   and  down,  and  had  no 

1634.  place  of  settling,  but  kept  secret  in  regard  of  the 
Bishops,  the  most  uncomfortable  and  fruitless  time, 
to  my  own  soul  especially,  that  ever  I  had  in  my 
life.  And  therefore  I  did  long  to  be  in  New-Eng- 
land, as  soon  as  might  be  ;  and  the  rather  because 
my  wife,  having  weaned  her  first  son,  Thomas,  had 
conceived  again,  and  was  breeding  ;  and  I  knew  no 
place  in  England  where  she  could  lie  in,  without 
discovery  of  myself,  danger  to  myself  and  all  my 
friends  that  should  receive  me,  and  where  we  could 
not  but  give  offence  to  many,  if  I  should  have  my 
child  not  baptized.  And,  therefore,  there  being 
divers  godly  Christians  resolved  to  go  toward  the 
latter  end  of  the  year,  if  I  would  go,  I  did  therefore 
resolve  to  go  that  year,  the  end  of  that  summer  I 
came  from  the  north.  And  the  time  appointed  for 
the  ship  to  go  out  was  about  a  month  or  fortnight 
Sept.  before  Michaelmas,  (as  they  there  call  it.)  The  ship 
*  was  called  the  Hope,  of  Ipswich.  The  master  of  it, 
a  very  able  seaman,  was  Mr.  Gurling,  who  professed 
much  love  to  me,  who  had  got  this  ship,  of  400  tons, 
from  the  Danes,  and,  as  some  report,  it  was  by  some 
fraud.  But  he  denied  it ;  and  being  a  man  very 
loving  and  full  of  fair  promises  of  going  at  the  time 


with  Shepard,  being  at  that  time  27  person  of  note  in  Cambridge,  and 
years  old,  and  settled  with  his  pas-  represented  that  town  in  the  Gene- 
tor  at  Newtown.  He  and  his  bro-  lal  Court  for  five  years,  from  1636 
ther  George,  and  Samuel  Shepard,  to  1640.  His  wife's  name  was 
are  registered,  in  the  list  of  passen-  P^lizabeth,  and  his  children  were  Jo- 
gers,  under  the  disguised  character  seph,  Elizabeth,  IMary,  Grace,  and 
of  servants  to  Roger  Harlakenden.  Ruth.  See  Newell "s  Cam.  Church 
He  was  admitted  a  freeman  of  the  Gath.  pp.  47,  49,  52  ;  Mass.  Hist. 
Colony  March  3,  1636,  with  others  Coll.  xxviii.  268  ;  Farmer's  Geneal. 
of  the  same  company.     He  was  a  Register. 


HE    SAILS    FROM    HARWICH.  533 

appointed,  and  an  able  seaman,  hence  we  resolved  J'J.j^- 

to  adventure   that  time,  though  dangerous  in  regard  -^ 

of  the  approaching  winter.^  ^ 

Now  here  the  Lord's  wonderful  terror  and  mercy 
to  us  did  appear.  For  being  come  to  Ipswich  with 
my  family,  at  the  time  appointed,  the  ship  was  not 
ready,  and  we  stayed  six  or  eight  weeks  longer  than 
the  time  promised  for  her  going  ;  and  so  it  was  very 
late  in  the  year,  and  very  dangerous  to  go  to  sea.^ 
And,  indeed,  if  we  had  gone,  doubtless  we  had  all 
perished  upon  the  seas,  it  being  so  extreme  cold  and 
tempestuous  winter.  But  yet  we  could  not  go  back, 
when  we  had  gone  so  far  ;  and  the  Lord  saw  it  good 
to  chastise  us  for  rushing  onward  too  soon,  and  haz- 
arding ourselves  in  that  manner  ;  and  I  had  many 
fears,  and  much  darkness,  I  remember,  overspread 
my  soul,  doubting  of  our  way.  Yet,  I  say,  we  could 
not  now  go  back.  Only  I  learnt  from  that  time  never 
to  go  about  a  sad  business  in  the  dark,  unless  God's 
c^ll  within  as  well  as  that  without  be  very  strong, 
and  clear,  and  comfortable. 

So  that  in  the  year  1634,  about  the  beginning  of    Oct. 
the  winter,  we  set  sail  from  Harwich.^     And  having 
gone  some  few  leagues  on  to  the  sea,  the  wind  stop- 
ped us  that  night,  and  so  we  cast  anchor  in  a  danger- 
ous place,  and  on  the  morning  the  wind  grew  fierce,     i7. 

^  "  Xow  one  cause  of  our  going         ^  Edward    Johnson     says,    that 

at  this  time  of  winter  was,  because  whilst   they   w^ere  waiting  for  the 

we  were  persecuted  in  Old  England  ship  to  sail,  plots  were  laid  to  en- 

for  the  truth  of  Christ,  which  we  trap    and   apprehend   Shepard   and 

profess  here.      We  durst  not  stay  Norton.     See  the  account  at  length 

to    make   ourselves   known,   which  in  his  Hist,  of  New-England,  ch.  29, 
would  have  been  at  the  baptizing  of        ^  Harwich  is  a  seaport  in  Essex, 

the  child.     Hence  we  hastened  for  at  the  mouth  of  the  Stour,  having  a 

New-England."       Shepard's    Pre-  spacious  and  safe  harbour.    Popula- 

face  to  this  Memoir.  tion  in  1841,  3289. 


534  THE    SHIP    IS    DRIVEN    BACK    TO    YARMOUTH. 

CHAP,  and  rough  against  us  full,  and  drave  us   toward  the 

sands.     But  the  vessel  being  laden  too  heavy  at  the 

^^^*"  head,  would  not  stir  for  all   that  which  the  seamen 

Oct.  ' 

17.  could  do,  but  drave  us  full  upon  the  sands  near  Har- 
wich harbour ;  and  the  ship  did  grate  upon  the  sands, 
and  was  in  great  danger.  But  the  Lord  directed  one 
man  to  cut  some  cable  or  rope  in  the  ship,  and  so 
she  was  turned  about,  and  was  beaten  quite  back- 
ward toward  Yarmouth,^  quite  out  of  our  way. 

But  while  the  ship  was  in  this  great  danger,  a 
wonderful  miraculous  providence  did  appear  to  us. 
For  one  of  the  seamen,  that  he  might  save  the  ves- 
sel, fell  in  when  it  was  in  that  danger,  and  so  was 
carried  out  a  mile  or  more  from  the  ship,  and  given 
for  dead  and  gone.  The  ship  was  then  in  such  dan- 
ger, that  none  could  attend  to  follow  him ;  and  when 
it  was  out  of  the  danger,  it  was  a  very  great  hazard 
to  the  lives  of  any  that  should  take  the  skiff  to  seek 
to  find  him.  Yet  it  pleased  the  Lord,  that  being 
discerned  afar  off  floating  upon  the  waters,  three  of 
the  seamen  adventured  out  upon  the  rough  waters, 
and  at  last,  about  an  hour  after  he  fell  into  the  sea, 
(as  we  conjectured,)  they  came  and  found  him  float- 
ing upon  the  waters,  never  able  to  swim,  but  sup- 
ported by  a  divine  hand  all  this  while.  When  the 
men  came  to  him,  they  were  glad  to  find  him,  but 
concluded  he  was  dead,  and  so  got  him  into  the  skiff*, 
and  when  he  was  there,  tumbled  him  down  as  one 
dead.  Yet  one  of  them  said  to  the  rest,  "Let  us 
use  what  means  we  can,  if  there  be  life,  to  preserve 
it;"  and  thereupon  turned  his  head  downward  for 

'  Yarmoutli  (Great)  is  a  seaport     mouth  of  the  Yare.     Population  in 
in   the   county  of  Norfolk,  at   the     1841,21,086. 


A    TERRIBLE    STORM.  535 

the  water  to  run  out.  And  having  done  so,  the  fel-  chap. 
low  began  to  gasp  and  breathe.  Then  they  applied 
other  means  they  had  ;  and  so  he  began  at  last  to 
move,  and  then  to  speak,  and  by  that  time  he  came 
to  the  ship,  he  was  pretty  well,  and  able  to  walk. 
And  so  the  Lord  showed  us  his  great  power.  Where- 
upon a  godly  man  in  the  ship  then  said,  "This  man's 
danger  and  deliverance  is  a  type  of  ours  ;  for  he  did 
fear  dangers  were  near  unto  us,  and  that  yet  the 
Lord's  power  should  be  shown  in  saving  of  us." 

For  so,  indeed,  it  was.  For  the  wind  did  drive 
us  quite  backward  out  of  our  way,  and  gave  us  no 
place  to  anchor  at  until  w^e  came  unto  Yarmouth 
roads  —  an  open  place  at  sea,  yet  fit  for  anchor- 
age, but  otherwise  a  very  dangerous  place.  And  so 
we  came  thither  through  many  uncomfortable  haz- 
ards, within  thirty  hours,  and  cast  anchor  in  Yar- 
mouth roads.  Which  when  we  had  done,  upon  a 
Saturday  morning,  the  Lord  sent  a  most  dreadful  and  is. 
terrible  storm  of  wind  from  the  west,  so  dreadful  that 
to  this  day  the  seamen  call  it  Windy  Saturday  ;  that 
it  also  scattered  many  ships  on  divers  coasts  at  that 
time,  and  divers  ships  were  cast  away.  One  among 
the  rest,  which  was  the  seaman's  ship  who  came 
with  us  from  Newcastle,  was  cast  away,  and  he  and 
all  his  men  perished.  But  when  the  wind  thus 
arose,  the  master  cast  all  his  anchors;  but  the  storm 
was  so  terrible,  that  the  anchors  broke,  and  the  ship 
drave  toward  the  sands,  where  we  could  not  but  be 
cast  away.  Whereupon  the  master  cries  out  that  we 
were  dead  men,  and  thereupon  the  whole  company 
go  to  prayer.  But  the  vessel  still  drave  so  near  to 
the  sands,  that  the  master  shot  off  two  pieces  of  ord- 


536  THEY    CUT    DOWN    THE    MAINMAST. 

CHAP,  nance  to  the  town,  for  help  to  save  the  passengers. 

The  town  perceived  it,  and  thousands   came   upon 

■  the  walls  of  Yarmouth,  and  looked  upon  us,  hearing 
18.  we  were  New-England  men,  and  pitied  much,  and 
gave  us  for  gone,  because  they  saw  other  ships  per- 
ishing near  unto  us  at  that  time  ;  but  could  not  send 
any  help  unto  us,  though  much  money  was  offered 
by  some  to  hazard  themselves  for  us. 

So  the  master  not  knowing  what  to  do,  it  pleased 
the  Lord  that  there  was  one  Mr.  Cock,  a  drunken 
fellow,  but  no  seaman,  yet  one  that  had  been  at  sea 
often,  and  would  come  in  a  humor  unto  New-Eng- 
land with  us  ;  whether  it  was  to  see  the  country,  or 
no,  I  cannot  tell.  But  sure  I  am,  God  intended  it 
for  good  unto  us,  to  make  him  an  instrument  to  save 
all  our  lives  ;  for  he  persuaded  the  master  to  cut 
down  his  mainmast.  The  master  was  unwilling  to  it, 
and  besotted,  not  sensible  of  ours  and  his  own  loss.^ 
At  last  this  Cock  calls  for  hatchets,  tells  the  master, 
"  If  you  be  a  man,  save  the  lives  of  your  passengers, 
cut  down  your  mainmast."  Hereupon  he  encour- 
aged all  the  company,  who  were  forlorn  and  hopeless 
of  life  ;  and  the  seamen  presently  cut  down  the  mast 
aboard,  just  at  that  very  time  wherein  we  all  gave 
ourselves  for  gone,  to  see  neither  Old  nor  New  Eng- 
land, nor  faces  of  friends  any  more,  there  being  near 
upon  two  hundred  passengers  in  the  ship.  And  so 
when  the  mast  was  down,  the  master  had  one  little 
anchor  left,  and  cast  it  out.     But  the  ship  was  driven 


'  Edward  Johnson,  in  his  Hist,  of  ship  was  bewitched,   and  therefore 

New-England,   chap.  29,  says  that  made  use  of  the  common  charm  ig- 

"  the  master  and  other  seamen  made  noraiit  people  use,  nailing  two  red- 

a  strange  construction  of  the  sore  hot  horse-shoes  to  their  mainmast." 

storm  they  met  withal,  saying  the  See  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xiii.  141. 


THE    WIND    ABATES. 


537 


away  toward  the  sands  still  ;   and  the  seamen  came  chap- 

'  XXIV. 

to  us,  and  bid  us  look,  pointing  to  the  place,  where  ^ — — 
our  graves   should  shortly  be,   conceiving  also  that  1^34. 
the  wind  had  broke   off  this   anchor  also.     So  the     i^s." 
master  professed  he  had   done  what  he  could,  and 
therefore  now  desired  us  to  go  to  prayer.     So  Mr. 
Norton^   in  one  place,  and  myself  in  another  part  of 
the  ship,  he  with  the  passengers,  and  myself  with  the 
mariners  above  decks,  went  to  prayer,  and  committed 
our  souls  and  bodies  unto  the  Lord  that  gave  them. 
Immediately  after  prayer,  the  wind  began  to  abate, 
and  the  ship  stayed.     For   the  last  anchor  was  not 
broke,  as  we  conceived,  but  only  rent  up  with  the 
wind,  and  so  drave,  and  was  drawn  along,  plough- 


^  John  Norton  was  born  at  Star- 
ford,  in  Hertfordshire,  May  6,  1606, 
and  was  educated  at  Peter  House, 
Cambridge,  where  he  took  the  de- 
gnree  of  A.  B.  in  1(;23,  and  of  A. 
M.  in  1627.  He  was  for  a  time  cu- 
rate of  the  church  at  Starford,  and 
afterwards  chaplain  to  Sir  William 
Masham,  at  High  Lever,  in  Essex. 
But,  like  the  other  non-conformists 
of  that  day,  he  was  so  harassed  by 
the  bishops  and  the  pursuivants,  that 
he  resolved  to  emigrate  to  America. 
After  escaping,  with  his  wife,  from 
the  storm  mentioned  in  the  text,  he 
returned  to  his  friends  in  Essex,  and 
the  next  year  embarked  again,  in 
the  same  ship  with  Edward  Wins- 
low,  and  arrived  at  Plymouth  in 
October,  1635.  Here  he  preached 
through  the  winter,  and  the  church 
were  very  desirous  of  retaining  him. 
But  he  preferred  to  settle  in  the 
Massachusetts  Colony,  and  in  1636 
was  ordained  the  second  minister  of 
Ipswich.  On  the  death  of  John 
Cotton  he  was  chosen  to  succeed 
him  as  teacher  of  the  church  in  Bos- 
ton, and  was  installed  colleague 
with  Wilson  July  23,  1656.  In 
Feb.  1662,  he  was  sent  to  England, 
with  Simon  Bradstreet,  as  an  agent 


for  the  Colony,  returned  in  Septem- 
ber, and  died  very  suddenly  on  Sun- 
day, April  5,  1663,  in  his  57th  year. 
He  was  an  accomplished  scholar 
and  theologian,  as  his  writings 
show.  He  wrote  a  Life  of  his  pre- 
decessor, John  Cotton  ;  a  treatise 
against  the  doctrines  of  the  Quakers, 
entitled  The  Heart  of  New-England 
Rent;  an  Answer  to  the  heretical 
book  of  Pynchon,  mentioned  on  page 
283,  and  several  other  works,  both 
in  English  and  Latin.  In  reference 
to  one  of  the  latter,  Fuller,  the 
English  Church  historian  says,  "Of 
all  the  authors  I  have  perused  con- 
cerning the  opinions  of  these  dis- 
senting brethren,  (the  Congrega- 
tionalists,)  none  to  me  was  more  in- 
formative than  Mr.  John  Norton, 
one  of  no  less  learning  than  modes- 
ty, minister  in  New-England,  in  his 
Answer  to  Apollonius,  pastor  in  the 
church  of  Middleburgh."  He  left 
a  widow,  Mary,  but  no  children. 
See  Winthrop,  i.  175  ;  Mather,  i. 
261-275  ;  Morton's  Memorial,  page 
298;  Hutchinson's  Mass.  i.  219- 
223  ;  Emerson's  Hist,  of  the  First 
Church  in  Boston,  pp.  88-98;  Felt's 
Ipswich,  p.  221  ;  Mass.  Hist.  CoU. 
xxviii.  248  ;  Fuller,  iii.  467. 


538  THE    SHIP    RIDES    OUT    THE    STORM. 

CHAP,  inff  the  sands  with  the  violence  of  the  wind  ;  which 

XXIV 

■  abating  after  prayer,  though  still  very  terrible,  the 
ship  was  stopped  just  when  it  was  ready  to  be  swal- 
lowed up  of  the  sands,  a  very  little  way  off  from  it. 
And  so  we  rid  it  out ;  yet  not  without  fear  of  our 
lives,  though  the  anchor  stopped  the  ship  ;  because 
the  cable  was  let  out  so  far,  that  a  little  rope  held 
the  cable,  and  the  cable  the  little  anchor,  and  the 
little  anchor  the  great  ship,  in  this  great  storm.  But 
when  one  of  the  company  perceived  that  we  were  so 
strangely  preserved,  had  these  words,  "  That  thread 
we  hang  by  will  save  us  ;"  for  so  we  accounted  of 
the  rope  fastened  to  the  anchor  in  comparison  of  the 
fierce  storm.  And  so  indeed  it  did,  the  Lord  show- 
ing his  dreadful  power  towards  us,  and  yet  his  un- 
speakable rich  mercy  to  us,  who,  in  depths  of  mercy, 
heard,  nay  helped  us,  when  we  could  not  cry  through 
the  disconsolate  fears  we  had,  out  of  these  depths  of 
seas,  and  miseries. 

This  deliverance  was  so  great,  that  I  then  did 
think,  if  ever  the  Lord  did  bring  me  to  shore  again, 
I  should  live  like  one  come  and  risen  from  the  dead. 
This  is  one  of  those  living  mercies  the  Lord  hath 
shown  me,  a  mercy  to  myself,  to  my  wife  and  child 
then  living,  and  to  my  second  son,  Thomas,  who  was 
in  this  storm,  but  in  the  womb  of  his  dear  mother, 
who  might  then  have  perished,  and  been  cut  off  from 
all  hope  of  means  and  mercy  ;  and  unto  my  dear 
friends    then   with   me,    viz.    brother    Champney,^ 

'  Richard    Champney    came    to  Nov.  26,    IGOl).     His  wife's  name 

New-Entrland,   and   was   at    Cam-  was  Jane,    and   his   children    were 

bridge    in    1635,    was    admitted   a  Esther,  Samuel,  Lydia,  and  Daniel, 

freeman  May  25,  1636,   and  was  a  See    Newell's  Cambridge   Church- 

fiilln,^    nlJn.,    „*'     4U„      ^U.,,.,.V,      Jr.     C^n^-rt-         riotVicvinrr      iat-v      /1ft      firt       '\0   ■     Ti^n  rin  P  r ' « 


ruling-elder  of  the  church  in  Cam-     Gathering,  pp.  48,50,  52  ;  Far 
bridge  in  February,  1637.    He  died     Genealogical  Register. 


mer  s 


SHEPARD    LANDS    AT    YARMOUTH. 


539 


Frost,^  GofF,^  and  divers  others,   most  dear  saints ;  §-5^J- 

and  also  to  all  with  me.     And  how  would  the  name 

of  the  Lord  [have]  suffered,  if  we  had  so  perished.  ^^^*' 

Oct 

That  the  Lord  Jesus  should  have  respect  to  me,  so  is.' 
vile,  and  one  at  that  time  full  of  many  temptations 
and  weaknesses,  amazed  [me]  much,  and  deeply 
afraid  of  God's  terror,  yet  supported.  I  desire  this 
mercy  may  be  remembered  of  my  children,  and  their 
children's  children,  when  I  am  dead,  and  cannot 
praise  the  Lord  in  the  land  of  the  living  any  more. 

And  so  we  continued  that  night,  many  sick,  many 
weak  and  discouraged,  m^any  sad  hearts.  Yet  upon 
the  Sabbath  morning  we  departed  and  went  out  of  19. 
the  ship ;  I  fear  a  little  too  soon,  for  we  should  have 
spent  that  day  in  praising  of  Him.  Yet  we  were 
afraid  of  neglecting  a  season  of  providence  in  going 
out  while  we  had  a  calm  ;  and  many  sick  folk  were 
unfit  for  that  work,  and  had  need  of  refreshing  at 
shore.  So,  upon  the  Sabbath-day  morning,  boats 
came  to  our  vessel  from  the  town  ;  and  so  my  dear 
wife  and  child  went  in  the  first  boat.  But  here  the 
Lord  saw  that  these  waters  were  not  sufficient  to 
wash  away  my  filth  and  sinfulness,  and  therefore  he 
cast  me  into  the  fire,  as  soon  as  ever  I  was  upon  the 
sea,  in  the  boat  ;  for  there  my  first-born  child,  very 
precious  to  my  soul,  and  dearly  beloved  of  me,  was 


'  Edmund  Frost  was  admitted  a  ^  Edward  GofFe  was  made  a  free- 
freeman  with  Shepard's  company  man  May  25,  1626,  was  a  represent- 
March  3,  1636,  and  was  a  ruling-  alive  in  1646  and  1650,  and  died 
elder  of  the  church  in  Cambridge.  Dec.  26,  1658.  His  children  by  his 
He  died  in  1672.  His  wife's  name  first  wife,  Joyce,  were  Samuel  and 
was  Thomasine,  and  his  children  Lydia,  and  by  his  second  wife,  Mar- 
were  John,  Samuel,  Joseph,  James,  garet,  were  Deborah,  Hannah,  and 
Mary,  Ephraim,  Thomas,  and  Sa-  Abiah.  See  Newell,  pp.  48,  49, 
rah.  See  Newell,  pp.  47,  48,  50, 52.  50,  54  ;  Farmer's  Gen.  Reg. 


540  HIS    CHILD    DIES. 

smitten  with  sickness.  The  Lord  sent  a  vomiting 
upon  it,  whereby  it  grew  faint ;  and  nothing  that  we 
could  use  could  stop  its  vomiting,  although  we  had 
many  helps  at  Yarmouth.  And  this  was  a  very  bit- 
ter affliction  to  me  ;  and  the  Lord  now  showed  me 
my  weak  faith,  want  of  fear,  pride,  carnal  content, 
immoderate  love  of  creatures,  and  of  my  child  espe- 
cially, and  begat  in  me  some  desires  and  purposes  to 
fear  his  name.  But  yet  the  Lord  would  not  be  en- 
treated for  the  life  of  it,  and  after  a  fortnight's  sick- 
ness, at  last  it  gave  up  the  ghost,  when  its  mother 
had  given  it  up  to  the  Lord,  and  was  buried  at  Yar- 
mouth ;  where  I  durst  not  be  present,  lest  the  pur- 
suivants should  apprehend  me  and  I  should  be  dis- 
covered ;^  which  was  a  great  affliction,  and  very 
bitter  to  me  and  my  dear  wife.  And  hereby  I  saw 
the  Lord  did  come  near  to  me,  and  I  did  verily  fear 
the  Lord  would  take  away  my  wife  also,  if  not  my- 
self, not  long  after. 

And  these  afflictions,  together  with  the  Lord's 
crossing  us  and  being  so  directly  against  our  voyage, 
made  me  secretly  willing  to  stay  and  suffer  in  Eng- 
land ;  and  my  heart  was  not  so  much  toward  New- 
England.  Yet  this  satisfied  me,  that  seeing  there 
was  a  door  opened  of  escape,  why  should  I  suffer, 
and  I  considered  how  unfit  I  was  to  go  to  such  a 
good  land,  with  such  an  unmortified,  hard,  dark,  for- 
mal, hypocritical  heart ;   and  therefore  no  wonder  if 


*  Scottow,  in  his  "  Narrative  of  them  both,  (Shepard  and  Norton,) 

the  Planting  oi'  the  Massachusetts  but  to  seize  their  persons.    But  how 

Colony,"  after  describing  the  above  strangely  preserved,  is  not  unknown 

storm,  says,  page   15,    "  The  next  to  some  oyw.s,- though  the  house  was 

day  they  all   landed    safe  ;  and  as  beset  by  them,   whenas  they  were 

soon  as  ashore,  two  vipers  designed  at   a  pious  meeting,  then  called   a 

not  only  to  leap  upon  the  hands  of  conventicle." 


HE  SPENDS  THE  WINTER  IN  NORFOLK.         541 

the  Lord  did  thus  cross  me.     And  the  Lord  made  chap. 

XXIV 

me  fear  my  affliction  came  in  part  for  running  too  far -' 

in  a  way  of  separation  from  the  mixed  assemblies  in  1634. 
England  ;  though  I  bless  God  I  have  ever  believed 
that  there  are  true  churches  in  many  parishes  in 
England,  where  the  Lord  sets  up  able  men  and  min- 
isters of  his  Gospel,  and  I  have  abhorred  to  refuse 
to  hear  any  able  minister  in  England. 

So  that  now,  I  having  buried  my  first-born,  and 
being  in  great  sadness,  and  not  knowing  where  to 
go  nor  what  to  do,  the  Lord  sent  Mr.  Roger  Harla- 
kenden  and  my  brother,  Samuel  Shepard,^  to  visit  me 
after  they  had  heard  of  our  escape  at  sea  ;  who  much 
refreshed  us,  and  clave  to  me  in  my  sorrows.  And 
being  casting  about  where  to  go  and  live,  Mr.  Bridge, 
then  minister  in  Norwich,  sent  for  me  to  come  and 
live  with  him  ;  and  being  come,  one  Mrs.  Corbet, 
who  lived  five  miles  off"  Norwich,  an  aged,  eminent, 
godly  gentlewoman,  hearing  of  my  coming,  and  that 
by  being  with  Mr.  Bridge  might  hazard  his  liberty 
by  countenancing  of  me,  she  did  therefore  freely 
offer  to  me  a  great  house  of  hers,  standing  empty,  at 
a  town  called  Bastwick  f  and  there  the  Lord  stirred 
up  her  heart  to  show  all  love  to  me,  which  did  much 
lighten  and  sweeten  my  sorrows.  And  I  saw  the 
Lord  Jesus'  care  herein  to  me,  and  saw  cause  of 
trusting  him  in  times  of  straits,  who  set  me  in  such  a 


*  Samuel  Shepard  came  over  with  Ireland.  His  wife's  name  was 
his  brother,  being  at  that  time  22  Hannah,  and  his  daughter  Jane  re- 
years  old,  and  settled  at  Cambridge,  mained  here.  See  Newell,  pp.  47, 
In  1639  he  was  one  of  the  superin-  50,  54  ;  Farmer's  Genealog.  Reg.  ; 
tendents  for  erecting  the  first  col-  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  2(58. 
lege-building  at  Cambridge.  He  "  Bastwick,  a  hamlet  in  the  parish 
returned  to  England  after  1645,  and  of  Repps,  in  the  county  of  Norfolk. 
in  1658  was  a  major,  and  living  in 


542  HIS    SECOND    SON    IS    BORN. 

CHAP,  place  :  where  I   lived  for  half  a  year,  all  the  winter 

XXIV.  •!  ' 

'■  long,  among  and  with  my  friends,  (Mr.  Harlakenden 

1634.  (levelling  with  me,  and  bearing  all  the  charge  of 
housekeeping,)  and  far  from  the  notice  of  my  ene- 
mies ;  where  we  enjoyed  sweet  fellowship  one  with 
another,  and  also  with  God,  in  a  house  which  was 
fit  to  entertain  any  prince  for  fairness,  greatness  and 
pleasantness. 

Here  the  Lord  hid  us  all   the  winter  long  ;   and 

16  35.  when  it  was  fit  to  travel  in  the  spring,  we  went  up  to 
London,  Mr.  Harlakenden  not  forsaking  me  all  this 
while  ;  for  he  was  a  father  and  mother  to  me.  And 
when  we  came  to  London,  to  Mrs,  Sherborne,  not 
knowing  what  to  do  nor  where  to  live  privately,  the 
Lord  provided  a  very  private  place  for  us  ;  where 
my  wife  was  brought  to  bed  and  delivered  of  my 
second  son,  Thomas,  and  none  but  our  friends  did 
know  of  it.  And  so,  by  this  means,  my  son  was  not 
baptized  until  we  came  to  New-England,  the  winter 

April  following,  being  born  in  London,  April  5,  1635. 
One  remarkable  deliverance  my  wife  had  when  we 
were  coming  up  to  London.  Mr.  Burrowes,  the 
minister,  kindly  entertained  us  about  a  fortnight  in 
the  way  ;  and  when  my  wife  was  there,  being  great 
with  child,  she  fell  down  from  the  top  of  a  pair  of 
stairs  to  the  bottom.  Yet  the  Lord  kept  her,  and 
the  child  also,  safe  from  that  deadly  danger. 

When  we  had  been  also  at  London  for  a  time,  and 
began  to  be  known  in  the  place,  my  wife  was  brought 
to  bed.  The  Lord  put  it  into  our  hearts  to  remove 
to  another  place  in  Mr.  Eldred's^  house,  in  London, 

'  Alured,  called  also  Aired  or  Aldred.     See  page  526,  and  Carlyle's 
Cromwell,  i.  57. 


HE    SAILS    FOR    NEW-ENGLAND.  543 

which  stood  empty  ;   and  the  very  night  we  were  all  chap. 

come  away,  then  came  the  pm'suivants  and  others  to  ^^ '■ 

search  after  us.  But  the  Lord  delivered  us  out  of  i^ss. 
their  hands.  And  so,  when  the  Lord  had  recovered 
my  wife,  we  began  to  prepare  for  a  removal  once 
again  to  New-England.  And  the  Lord  seemed  to 
make  our  way  plain.  L  Because  I  had  no  other 
call  to  any  place  in  England.  2.  Many  more  of 
God's  people  resolved  to  go  with  me,  as  Mr.  Roger 
Harlakenden  and  Mr.  Champney,  &c.  3.  The  Lord 
saw  our  unfitness  and  the  unfitness  of  our  going  the 
year  before.  And  therefore  giving  us  good  friends 
to  accompany  us,  and  good  company  in  the  ship,  we 
set  forward  about  the  10th  of  August,  1635,  with  Xng. 
myself,  wife,  and  my  little  son  Thomas,  and  other  ^^' 
precious  friends,  having  tasted  much  of  God's  mercy 
in  England,  and  lamenting  the  loss  of  our  native 
country,  when  we  took  our  last  view  of  it.^ 

In  our  voyage  upon  the  sea,  the  Lord  was  very 
tender  of  me,  and  kept  me  from  the  violence  of  sea- 
sickness. In  our  coming  we  were  refreshed  with 
the  society  of  Mr.  Wilson,^  [and]  Mr.  Jones,^  by  their 
faith,  and  prayers,  and  preaching.  The  ship"*  we 
came  in  was  very  rotten,  and  unfit  for  such  a  voyage ; 


'  He  embarked  in  disguise,  under  he  died  about  lfi6 4,  being  over  70 

the   assumed   name  of  his   brother  years  of  age.     His  son  John  gradu- 

"  John   Shepard,  husbandman." —  ated  at   Harvard  College   in   1643, 

See   Mass.   Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  268,  and   a   daughter   married  Thomas, 

276.  son   of  Rev.  Peter  Bulkley,    went 

*  Rev.  John  Wilson,  of  Boston,  with  her  father  to  Fairfield,  and  died 
See  note  '  on  page  325.  about  1652.     See  Winthrop,  i.  169, 

*  Rev.  John  Jones,  who  was  col-  189,  217  ;  Shattuck's  History  of 
league  with  Peter  Bulkley  at  Con-  Concord,  pp.  153,  160  ;  Trumbull's 
cord  about  eight  years,  having  been  Conn.  i.  280. 

ordained  pastor  April  6,  1637,  and  ^  Her  name  was  the  Defence,  of 

then  removed  with  part  of  his  church  London,  Capt.  Thomas  Bostock. — 

to  Fairfield,  in  Connecticut,  where  See  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xxviii.  268. 


544  HE    ARRIVES    AT    BOSTON. 

CHAP,  and  therefore  the  first  storm  we  had,  we  had  a  very 

XXIV 

- — — ^  great  leak,  which  did  much  appall  and  affect  us.  Yet 
16  35.  j.}jg  Lord  discovered  it  unto  us  when  we  were  think- 
ing of  returning  back  again,  and  much  comforted  our 
hearts.  We  had  many  storms  ;  in  one  of  which  my 
dear  wife  took  such  a  cold,  and  got  such  weakness, 
as  that  she  fell  into  a  consumption,  of  which  she 
afterward  died.  And  also  the  Lord  preserved  her, 
with  the  child  in  her  arms,  from  imminent  and  ap- 
parent death.  For  by  the  shaking  of  the  ship  in  a 
violent  storm,  her  head  was  pitched  against  an  iron 
bolt,  and  the  Lord  miraculously  preserved  the  child 
and  recovered  my  wife.  This  was  a  great  affliction 
to  me,  and  was  a  cause  of  many  sad  thoughts  in  the 
ship,  how  to  behave  myself  when  I  came  to  New- 
England.  My  resolutions  I  have  written  down  in  my 
little  book. 

And  so  the  Lord,  after  many  sad  storms  and  wea- 
risome days,  and  many  longings  to  see  the  shore, 
the  Lord  brought  us  to  the  sight  of  it  upon  October 
Oct.    2,  anno  1635  ;   and  upon   October  the  3d,  we  arriv- 

o 

'  ed,  with  my  Avife,  child,  brother  Samuel,^  Mr.  Har- 
lakenden,  Mr.  Cookes,^  &c.  at  Boston,  with  rejoicing 
in  our  God  after  a  longsome  voyage;^  my  dear  wife's 
great  desire  being  now  fulfilled,  which  was  to  leave 
me    in    safety  from  the  hand  of  my  enemies,   and 

'  His  younger  brother,  mentioned  tain,  and  commanded  the  troops  sent 
on  page  500,  who  was  at  this  time  to  arrest  Gorton  and  his  company  in 
22  years  of  age,  and  who,  as  well  1643,  was  speaker  of  the  House  of 
as  the  Cookes,  came  in  the  assumed  Deputies  in  1645,  and  was  after- 
character  of  servants  to  Roger  Har-  wards  a  colonel  under  Cromwell,  in 
lakenden.  See  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  Ireland.  See  Newell's  Cam.  Ch. 
xxviii.  -208,  273.  Gath.    pp.   47,  50  ;    Winthrop,  ii. 

2  Joseph  Cooke,  mentioned  in  note  53,    137,    142;     Mass.   Hist.   Coll. 

^on  page  531,  had  a  brother  George,  xvii.  55,  xxviii.  268. 

who  accompanied  him,  and  who  set-  ^  Their    passage    w^as    fifty-four 

tied  in  Cambridge.     He  was  a  cap-  days,  from  Aug.  10. 


HE    SETTLES    AT    CAMBRIDGE.  545 

among  God's  people,  and  also  the  child  under  God's  J^^^- 
precious  ordinances.^ 

Now  when  we  came  upon  shore,  we  were  kindly 
saluted  and  entertained  by  many  friends,  and  were 
the  first  three  days  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Cottington,^ 
being  Treasurer  at  that  time,  and  that  with  much 
love. 

When  we  had  been  here  two  days,  upon  the  Mon- 
day, October  5,  we  came,  (being  sent  for  by  friends     5. 
at  Newtown,)  to  them,   to  my  brother  Mr.  Stone's 
house.     And  that  congregation  being  upon  their  re- 
moval to  Hartford,  at  Connecticut,  myself  and  those 
that  came  with  me,  found  many  houses  empty,  and 
many  persons  willing  to  sell ;  and  hence  our  compa- 
ny bought  off  their   houses  to  dwell   in,  until   we 
should  see  another  place   fit  to  remove  unto.     But 
having  been  here  some  time,  divers  of  our  brethren 
did  desire  to   sit   still,  and   not   to  remove  farther  ; 
partly,  because  of  the  fellowship  of  the  churches  ; 
partly,  because  they  thought  their  lives  were  short, 
and  removals  to  new  plantations  full  of  troubles  ; 
partly,  because  they  found  sufficient   for  themselves 
and  their  company.     Hereupon  there  was  a  purpose 
to  enter   into   church   fellowship,  which  we  did  the  i636 
year  after,  about  the  end  of  the  winter  f  a  fortnight   ^^^• 
after  which  my  dear  wife  Margaret  died,  being  first    15, 
received  into  church  fellowship  ;  which  as  she  much 

*  The  child  was  baptized  Februa-  Discourse  on  the  Cambridge  Church- 

ry  7,  1636.  Gathering  in  1636,  delivered  in  the 

^  William  Coddington.  See  note  ^  First  Church  of  Cambridge,  Feb.  22, 

on  page  337.  1846,  by  William  Newell,  Pastor  of 

^  It  was  on  February   1st,   1636,  the  Church."  The  next  year,  1637, 

old  style,   according   to   Winthrop,  Shepard  preached  the  Election  Ser- 

corresponding  to  Feb.  llth  of  new  mon  and  offered  the  prayer  at  the 

style.     See  a  graphic  and  beautiful  opening  of  the  Synod  at  Cambridge, 

description  of  this  transaction  in  "A  See  Winthrop,  i.  179,  221,  237. 
35 


546  TROUBLES    FROM    THE    FAMILISTS. 

CHAP,  lonsfed  for,  so  the  Lord  did  so  sweeten  it  unto  her, 

XXIV. 

''  that  she  was  hereby  exceedingly  cheered,  and  com- 

^^^^-  forted  with  the  sense  of  God's  love,  which  continued 
until  her  last  gasp. 

No  sooner  were  we  thus  set  down  and  entered 
into  church  fellowship,  but  the  Lord  exercised  us 
and  the  whole  country  with  the  opinions  of  Fami- 
lists  ;    begun  by  Mrs.  Hutchinson,^  raised  up  to  a 
May    great   height   by  Mr.   Vane,    too    suddenly   chosen 
^^'     Governor,    and   maintained   too   obscurely   by   Mr. 
Cotton,  and  propagated  too  boldly  by  the  members 
of  Boston,  and  some  in  other  churches.     By  means 
of  which  division  by  these  opinions,  the  ancient  and 
received  truth  came  to  be  darkened,   God's  name 
to  be  blasphemed,  the  churches'  glory  diminished, 
many  godly  grieved,  many  wretches  hardened,  de- 
ceiving   and    being    deceived,   growing    worse    and 
worse.     The  principal  opinion  and  seed  of  all  the 
rest  was  this,  viz.  that  a  Christian  should  not  take 
any  evidence  of  God's  special  grace  and  love  toward 
him  by  the  sight  of  any  graces,  or  conditional  evan- 
gelical promises  to  faith  or  sanctification,  in  way  of 
ratiocination,  (for  this  was  evidence,  and  so  a  way 
of  works,)  but  it  must  be  without  the  sight  of  any 
grace,  faith,  holiness,  or  special  change  in  himself, 
by   immediate   revelation   in    an   absolute   promise. 
And  because  that  the  whole  Scriptures  do  give  such 
clear,  plain,  and  notable  evidences  of  favor  to  per- 
sons called  and  sanctified,  hence  they  said  that  a 
second  evidence  might  be  taken  from  thence,  but 

'  See  note  '  on  page  360. 


A.    SYNOD    AT    CAMBRIDGE.  547 

no  first  evidence.     But  from  hence  it  arose,  that  as  chap. 

XXIV 

all  error  is  fruitful,  so  this  opinion  did  gender  above  '■ 

a  hundred  monstrous  opinions  in  the  country.  Which  i636. 
the  elders  perceiving,  having  used  all  private  broth- 
erly means  with  Mr.  Cotton  first,  and  yet  no  healing, 
hereupon,  they  publicly  preached  both  against  opin- 
ions publicly  and  privately  maintained.  And  I  ac- 
count it  no  small  mercy  to  myself,  that  the  Lord 
kept  me  from  that  contagion,  and  gave  me  any  heart 
or  light  to  see  through  those  devices  of  men's  heads ; 
although  I  found  it  a  most  uncomfortable  time  to  live 
in  contention ;  and  the  Lord  was  graciously  pleased, 
by  giving  \vitness  against  them,  to  keep  this  poor 
church  spotless  and  clear  from  them. 

This  division  in  the  Church  began  to  trouble  the 
Commonwealth.  Mr.  Wheelwright,  a  man  of  a  bold 
and  stiff  conceit  of  his  own  worth  and  light,  preached  i637. 
(as  the  Court  judged,)  a  seditious  sermon,^  stirring  go! 
up  all  sorts  against  those  that  preached  a  covenant 
of  works  ;  meaning  all  the  elders  in  the  country 
that  preached  justification  by  faith,  and  assurance 
of  it  by  sight  of  faith,  and  sanctification,  being 
enabled  thereto  by  the  spirit.  The  troubles  thus 
increasing,  and  all  means  used  for  crushing  and 
curing  these  sores,  a  Synod  was  thought  of  and 
called,  from  the  example  Acts  xv. ;  wherein,  by  the 
help  of  all  the  elders  joined  together,  those  errors, 


'  This  sermon,  the  text  of  which  blank  page,  that  "  it  was  left  in  the 

was  from  ^latth.  ix.  15,  has  never  hands  of  Mr.  John  Coggeshall,  who 

been  printed  ;  but  the  larger  part  of  was  a  deacon  of  the  church  in  Bos- 

the   original  manuscript,   being  the  ton.''     A  perfect  copy  of  this   ser- 

last  thirty-three  pag-es,  is  preserved  mon  is  contained  in  the  first  volume 

in  the  archives  of  the  Massachusetts  of  the  Hutchinson   manuscripts,  be- 

Historical    Society.      A    compara-  longing  to  the  same  Society.     See 

lively  modern  hand  has  written  on  a  Winthrop,  i,  215. 


548  RESULT  OF  THE  SYNOD. 

CHAP.  throuo;h  the  2frace  and  power  of  Christ,  were  discov- 

XXIV.  '='  *  ^  .  1         1       1  J 

ered,  the  defenders  of  them  convniced  and  ashamed, 

^^^'-  the  truth  stablished,  and  the  consciences  of  the 
saints  settled ;  there  being  a  most  wonderful  pres- 
ence of  Christ's  spirit    in  that   Assembly,  held   at 

Aug.   Cambridge  anno  1637,  about  August,  and  continued 
^^"     a  month  together,  in  public  agitations.^     For  the 
issue  of  this  Synod  was  this  : 

1.  The  Pekoat  Indians  were  fully  discomfited. 
For  as  the  opinions  arose,  wars  did  arise ;  and  when 
these  began  to  be  crushed  by  the  ministry  of  the 
elders,  and  by  opposing  Mr.  Vane,  and  casting  him 
and  others  from  being  magistrates,  the  enemies  be- 
gan to  be  crushed,  and  were  perfectly  subdued  by 
the  end  of  the  Synod. 

Nov.  2.  The  magistrates  took  courage,  and  exiled  Mr. 
Wheelwright,  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and  divers  Islanders, 
whom  the  Lord  did  strangely  discover,  giving  most 
of  them  over  to  all  manner  of  filthy  opinions,  until 
many  that  held  w^ith  them  before,  were  ashamed  of 
them.  And  so  the  Lord,  within  one  year,  wrought 
a  great  change  among  us. 

At  this  time  I  cannot  omit  the  goodness  of  God 
as  to  myself,  so  to  all  the  country,  in  delivering  us 
from  the  Pekoat  furies.  These  Indians  w^ere  the 
stoutest,  proudest,  and  most  successful  in  their  wars 
of  all  the  Indians.  Their  chief  sachem  was  Sasakus, 
a  proud,  cruel,  unhappy,  and  headstrong  prince ; 
who,  not  willing  to  be  guided  by  the  persuasions 
of  his  fellow,  an  aged  sachem,  Monanattuck,  nor 
fearing   the   revenge   of   the   English,    having   first 

»  See  Sparks's  American  Bio-  i.  237-241  ;  Hutchinson's  Mass.  i. 
graphy,  xvi.  249-260  ;    Winthrop,     67-09. 


WAR    WITH    THE    PEQUOTS.  549 

sucked  the  blood  of  Captain  Stone  and  Mr.  Oldham,^  chap. 

found  it  so  sweet,  and  his  proceedings  for  one  w^iole  

winter  so  successful,  that  having  besieged  and  killed  i^^"''- 
about  four  men  that  kept  Seabrook  fort,  he  adven- 
tured   to    fall    upon    the    English    up    the   river    at 
Wethersfield,    where   he    slew   nine   or   ten    men,   ^p^^ 
women,   and   children   at   unawares,   and  took  two     ^^^ 
maids  prisoners,  carrying  them  away  captive  to  the 
Pekoat  country.      Hereupon,  those  upon  the  river 
first  gathered  about  seventy  men,  and   sent   them 
into    [the]    Pekoat  country,  to  make  that  the   seat 
of  war,  and  to  revenge  the  death  of  those  innocents, 
whom  they  barbarously  and  most  unnaturally  slew. 
These  men  marched  two  days  and  nights  from  the    ^^ 
way  of  the   Naraganset  unto  Pekoat,  being  guided     24. 
by  those  Indians,  then  the  ancient  enemies  of  the 
Pekoats.     They  intended  to  assault  Sasakus's  fort ; 
but  falling  short  of  it  the  second  night,  the  provi- 
dence of  God  guided  them  to  another,  nearer,  full  of 
stout  men,  and  their  best  soldiers,  being,  as  it  were, 
cooped  up  there,  to  the  number  of  three  or  four 
hundred  in  all,  for  the  divine  slaughter  by  the  hand 
of  the  English.      These,  therefore,  being  all  night     35. 
making  merry,  and  singing  the  death  of  the  English 
the  next  day,  toward  break  of  the  day,  being  very     ^^ 
heavy  with  sleep,  the  English  drew  near  within  the 
sight  of  the  fort,  very  weary  with  travel  and  want 
of  sleep  ;   at  which  time  five  hundred   Naragansets 
fled  for  fear,  and  only  two  of  the  company  stood 
to  it  to  conduct  them  to  the  fort,  and  the  door  and 
entrance  thereof.     The  English  being  come  to  it, 

'  See  pages  363  and  36-i. 


550  THE  PEQUOTS  SUBDUED. 

CHAP,  awakened  the  fort  with  a  peal  of  muskets,  directed 

XXIV  . 

''  into  the  midst  of  their  wigwams  ;    and  after  this, 

1637.  some  undertaking  to  compass  the  fort  without,  some 
25^  adventured  into  the  fort,  upon  the  very  faces  of  the 
enemy,  standing  ready  with  their  arrows  ready  bent 
to  shoot  whoever  should  adventure.  But  the  Eng- 
lish, casting  by  their  pieces,  took  their  swords  in 
their  hands,  (the  Lord  doubling  their  strength  and 
courage,)  and  fell  upon  the  Indians  ;  when  a  hot 
fight  continued  about  the  space  of  an  hour.  At 
last,  by  the  direction  of  one  Captain  Mason,  their 
wigwams  were  set  on  fire  ;  which  being  dry,  and 
contiguous  one  to  another,  was  most  dreadful  to  the 
Indians  ;  some  burning,  some  bleeding  to  death  by 
the  sword,  some  resisting  till  they  were  cut  off; 
some  flying  were  beat  down  by  the  men  without ; 
until  the  Lord  had  utterly  consumed  the  whole 
company,  except  four  or  five  girls  they  took  prison- 
ers, and  dealt  with  them  at  Seabrooke  as  they  dealt 
with  ours  at  Wethersfield.  And  't  is  verily  thought, 
scarce  one  man  escaped,  unless  one  or  two  to  carry 
forth  tidings  of  the  lamentable  end  of  their  fellows. 
And  of  the  English  not  one  man  was  killed,  but  one 
by  the  musket  of  an  Englishman,  as  was  conceived. 
Some  were  wounded  much  ;  but  all  recovered,  and 
restored  again. ^ 

Thus  the  Lord  having  delivered  the  country  from 

war  with  Indians  and  Familists,  (who  arose  and  fell 

16  36.  together,)  he  was  pleased  to  direct  the  hearts  of  the 

^gP*^-  magistrates,  (then  keeping  Court  ordinarily  in  our 

town,  because  of  these  stirs  at  Boston,)  to  thir.k  of 


'  See  page  364,  and  note  *  on  page  306. 


HARVARD    COLLEGE    FOUNDED. 


551 


erecting  a  School  or  College,  and  that  speedily,  to  chap. 

be   a  nursery  of   knowledge   in  these  deserts,   and 

supply  for  posterity.^  And  because  this  town,  i^^e. 
then  called  Newtown,  was,  through  God's  great 
care  and  goodness,  kept  spotless  from  the  contagion 
of  the  opinions,  therefore,  at  the  desire  of  some 
of  our  town,  the  Deputies  of  the  Court,  having  got 
Mr.  Eaton-  to  attend  the  School,  the  Court,  for  that 
and  sundry  other  reasons,  determined  to  erect  the 
College  here.^     Which  was  no  sooner  done,  but  the  i63  7. 


'  "  After  God  had  carried  us  safe 
to  New-England,  and  we  had  build- 
ed  our  houses,  provided  necessaries 
for  our  liveHhood,  reared  conven- 
ient places  for  God's  worship,  and 
settled  the  civil  government,  one  of 
the  next  things  we  longed  for  and 
looked  after,  was  to  advance  learn- 
ing, and  perpetuate  it  to  posterity  ; 
dreading  to  leave  an  illiterate  min- 
istry to  the  churches,  when  our  pre- 
sent ministers  shall  lie  in  the  dust. 
And  as  we  were  thinking  and  con- 
sulting how  to  effect  this  great  work, 
it  pleased  God  to  stir  up  the  heart 
of  one  INIr.  Harvard,  a  godly  gentle- 
man and  a  lover  of  learning,  there 
li"sang  amongst  us,  to  give  the  one  half 
of  his  estate,  it  being  in  all  about 
£1700,  towards  the  erecting  of  a 
College,  and  all  his  library.  After 
him  another  gave  jC300  ;  others 
after  them  cast  in  more  ;  and  the 
public  hand  of  the  State  added  the 
rest."  New-England's  First  Fruits, 
p.  12,  (London,  1643.) 

^  Nathaniel  Eaton,  brother  of 
Theophilus  Eaton,  of  New  Haven, 
was  admitted  a  freeman  June  9, 
1638.  He  had  been  educated  under 
Dr.  Ames  in  Holland,  and  was 
known  to  Mr.  Hooker  whilst  there, 
who  says  "he  did  not  approve  of 
his  spirit,  and  feared  the  issue  of 
his  being  received  here."  He  was 
intrusted  not  only  with  the  educa- 
tion of  the  students,  but  with  the 


management  of  the  funds.  For  his 
cruel  treatment  of  his  usher,  Bris- 
coe, he  was  dismissed  from  office, 
sentenced  by  the  Court  to  pay  a  fine 
of  twenty  marks,  and  to  pay  Bris- 
coe =C20.  After  this  sentence,  the 
church  at  Cambridge  excommuni- 
cated him.  He  went  first  to  Pisca- 
taqua,  afterwards  to  Virginia,  and 
then  to  England,  where  he  lived 
privately  till  the  Restoration,  then 
conformed,  and  was  settled  at  Bid- 
deford,  where  he  persecuted  the 
Nonconformists,  and  at  last  died  in 
prison,  where  he  had  been  put  for 
debt."  See  Winthrop,  i.  308  ; 
Mather,  ii.  8  ;  Hutchinson's  Mass. 
i.  91. 

^  Edward  Johnson  says,  "  For 
place,  they  fix  their  eye  upon  New- 
town, which,  to  tell  their  posterity 
whence  they  came,  is  now  named 
Cambridg'e ;  and  withal,  to  make 
the  whole  world  imderstand  that 
spiritual  learning  was  the  thing  they 
chiefly  desired,  to  sanctify  the  other, 
and  make  the  whole  lump  holy,  and 
that  learning,  being  set  upon  its 
right  object,  might  not  contend  for 
error  instead  of  truth,  they  chose 
this  place,  being  then  under  the 
orthodox  and  soul-flourishing  minis- 
try of  INIr.  Thomas  Shepard ;  of 
whom  it  may  be  said,  without  any 
wrong  to  others,  the  Lord  by  his 
ministry  hath  saved  many  a  hundred 
soirls."     Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xvii.  27. 


552 


JOHN    HARVARD,    OF    CHARLESTOWN. 


1638. 

Sept. 
U. 


1639, 


1640, 

Auff. 
17. 


chief  of  the  magistrates  and  elders  sent  to  England 
to  desire  help  to  forward  this  work.  But  they  all 
neglecting  us,  in  a  manner,  the  Lord  put  it  into  the 
heart  of  one  Mr.  Harvard,^  who  died  worth  £1600, 
to  ofive  half  his  estate  to  the  erectins:  of  the  School. 
The  man  was  a  scholar,  and  pious  in  his  life,  and 
enlarged  towards  the  country  and  the  good  of  it, 
in  life  and  death. 

But  no  sooner  was  this  given,  but  Mr.  Eaton, 
(professing  eminently,  yet  falsely  and  most  deceit- 
fully, the  fear  of  God,)  did  lavish  out  a  great  part 
of  it,  and  being  for  his  cruelty  to  his  scholars, 
especially  to  one  Briscoe,"  as  also  for  some  other 
wantonness  in  life,  not  so  notoriously  known,  driven 
the  country,  the  Lord,  about  a  year  after,  graciously 
made   up  the  breach  by  one  Mr.  Dunstar,^  a  man 


'  Of  John  Harvard  little  is 
known.  In  1628,  he  entered  Em- 
manuel College,  Cambridge,  where 
he  took  the  degree  of  A.  B.  in  1631, 
and  of  A.  M.  in  1635.  He  was 
admitted  an  inhabitant  of  Charles- 
town  Aug.  6,  1637,  "  with  promise 
of  such  accommodations  as  we  best 
can  ;  "  was  made  a  freeman  Nov.  2  ; 
was  admitted,  with  his  wife  Anna, 
a  member  of  the  church  at  Charles- 
town  Nov.  6;  and  "was  sometime 
minister  of  God's  word  here,"  as 
assistant  to  the  Rev.  Zechariah 
Symmes.  There  is  no  account, 
however,  of  his  ordination.  The 
town  records  state  that  he  had  a 
lot  of  land  assigned  him  in  1637, 
and  the  ne.\t  year  his  share  in  an- 
other allotment  was  a  third  larger 
than  Mr.  Symmes's.  He  was  ap- 
pointed, April  26,  1638,  one  of  a 
committee  "  to  consider  of  some 
things  tending  towards  a  body  of 
laws,"  and  had  a  grant  of  three 
and  a  half  feet  of  ground  for  a 
portal  to  his  house.  He  died  of  a 
consumption  Sept.   14,  1638,  aged 


not  above  thirty,  supposing  he  en- 
tered college  between  his  seven- 
teenth and  twentieth  year.  Froth- 
ingham  makes  it  probable  that  his 
widow  married  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Allen,  of  Charlestown.  His  library 
consisted  of  260  volumes,  a  cata- 
logue of  which  is  preserved,  though 
the  books  were  destroyed  in  the  fire 
of  1764.  On  the  5i6th  of  Sept. 
1828,  a  monument  of  granite,  a 
solid  obelisk,  fifteen  feet  high  and 
four  square  at  the  base,  was  erected 
to  the  memory  of  Harvard  in  the 
burying-ground  at  Charlestown  ;  on 
which  occasion  an  eloquent  address 
was  delivered  by  Edward  Everett, 
now  President  of  the  College  which 
he  founded.  See  Winthrop,  ii. 
88,  312  ;  Mather,  ii.  7  ;  Everett's 
Orations,  p.  163  ;  Frothingham's 
Charlestown,  p.  74  ;  Budington's 
Charlestown  Church,  pp.  44,  182, 
247  ;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xvii.  16,  28, 
xxviii.  248,  249. 

^  See  an  account  of  this  in  Win- 
throp, 1.  308. 

'  Henry  Dunster  is  placed  by  Cot- 


HENRY    DUNSTER,    OF    CAMBRIDGE. 


553 


1640. 


pious,  painful,  and  fit  to  teach,  and  very  fit  to  lay  chap. 

the  foundations  of  the  domestical  aff"airs  of  the  Col 

lege  ;  whom  God  hath  much  honored  and  blessed. 

The  sin  of  Mr.  Eaton  was  at  first  not  so  clearly 
discerned  by  me.  Yet,  after  more  full  information, 
I  saw  his  sin  great,  and  my  ignorance,  and  want 
of  wisdom,  and  watchfulness  over  him,  very  great ; 
for  which  I  desire  to  mourn  all  my  life,  and  for  the 
breach  of  his  family. 


ton  Mather  among  the  ministers  of 
his  "first  class,"  that  is,  such  as 
■were  in  the  actual  exercise  of  the 
ministry  -when  they  left  England. 
But  neither  he,  nor  Morton,  nor  any 
other  writer,  mentions  the  place  of 
his  ministry  or  birth.  He  was  edu- 
cated at  Emmanuel  College,  Cam- 
bridge, where  he  received  the  de- 
gree'of  A.  B.  in  1630,  and  of  A.  M. 
in  1634.  He  arrived  in  New-Eng- 
land in  1640,  and  was  admitted  a 
freeman  June  2,  1641.  The  au- 
thor of  New-England"s  First  Fruits 
(1043)  says,  "Over  the  College  is 
Master  Dunster  placed,  as  Presi- 
dent, a  learned,  conscionable,  and 
industrious  man."  Edward  John- 
son (165-2)  speaks  of  him  as  "one 
fitted  from  the  Lord  for  the  work, 
and  by  those  that  have  skill  that 
way,  reported  to  be  an  able  profi- 
cient in  both  Hebrew^  Greek  and 
Latin  languages."  He  remained 
in  office  fourteen  years,  till,  as 
Mather  says,  "  his  unhappy  en- 
tanglement in  the  snares  of  Ana- 
baptism  filled  the  Overseers  with 
uneasy  fears  lest  the  students  by 
his  means  should  come  to  be  en- 
snared. Wherefore  they  labored 
with  an  extreme  agony  either  to 
rescue  the  good  man  from  his  own 
mistakes,  or  to  restrain  him  from 
imposing  them  upon  the  hope  of 
the  flock.  Of  both  which  finding 
themselves  to  despair,  they  did  as 
quietly  as  they  could  procure  his 
removal.  Their  uneasiness  was  so 
signified  unto  him  that  on  Oct.  24, 


1654,  he  resigned  his  president- 
ship." On  leaving  Cambridge,  he 
retired  to  Scituate,  where  he  was 
employed  in  the  ministry  till  his 
death,^  Feb.  27,  1659.  Mather  re- 
marks, that  "  he  died  in  such  har- 
mony of  affection  with  the  good 
men  who  had  been  the  authors  of 
his  removal  from  Cambridge,  that 
he,  by  his  will,  ordered  his  body  to 
be  carried  unto  Cambridge  for  its 
burial,  and  bequeathed  legacies  to 
those  very  persons."  Morton  says, 
that  "  his  body  was  embalmed,  and 
removed  to  Cambridge,  and  there 
honorably  buried."  The  Corpora- 
tion of  the  College  have  lately  taken 
measures  to  erect  a  monument  to 
his  memory  on  the  spot  where  he 
is  supposed  to  have  been  buried,  as 
indicated  by  the  ruins  of  a  former 
monument,  on  which  no  traces  of 
an  inscription  remain.  Dunster  re- 
vised and  polished  the  New-Eng- 
land version  of  the  Psalms,  which 
had  been  translated  in  1640,  by 
Eliot,  Weld,  and  Mather,  as  men- 
tioned on  page  511.  His  wife 
Elizabeth  was  the  widow  of  the 
Rev.  Jesse  Glover,  who  died  on  his 
passage  to  New-England  in  1639  ; 
and  he  had  three  sons  ;  David,  born 
May  16,  1645,  Henry,  born  in  1650, 
and  Jonathan,  born  in  1653.  See 
Mather,  i.  366,  ii.  8,  10;  Morton's 
Memorial,  p.  283  ;  Deane's  Scitu- 
ate, p.  179  ;  Peirce's  Hist,  of  Har- 
vard Univ.  p.  7;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll. 
xvii.  25,  31,  xxviii.  248;  Farmer's 
Genealogical  Register. 


554  SHEPARD    MAHRIES    HOOKER's    DAUGHTER. 

CHAP.      But  thus  the  Lord  hath  been  very  ffood  unto  me, 

XXIV.    _  ^  ... 

in  planting  the  place  I  live  in  w^ith  such  a  mercy 

^^^^'  to  myself,  such  a  blessing  to  my  children  and  the 
country,  such  an  opportunity  of  doing  good  to  many 
by  doing  good  to  students,  as  the  School  is. 

After  this,  I  fell  sick  after  Mr.  Harlakenden's 
death,  my  most  dear  friend,  and  most  precious  ser- 
vant of  Jesus  Christ.  And  when  I  was  very  low, 
and  my  blood  much  corrupted,  the  Lord  revived  me, 
and  after  that  took  pleasure  in  me,  to  bless  my 
labors,  that  I  was  not  altogether  useless  nor  fruitless ; 
and  not  only  to  speak  by  me  to  his  people,  but 
likewise  to  print  my  Notes  upon  the  Nine  Principles, 
I  intended  to  proceed  on  with  in  Yorkshire,  but 
never  intended  them,  or  imagined  they  should  be 
for  the  press.  Yet  six  of  them  being  finished  in 
Old  England,  and  printed,  and  the  other  three  de- 
sired, I  finished  (the  Lord  helping,)  those  at  Cam- 
bridge ;  and  so  sent  them  to  England,  where  they 
also  are  printed  ;  which  I  do  not  glory  in,  (for  I 
know  my  weakness,)  that  my  name  is  up  by  this 
means,  but  that  the  Lord  may  be  pleased  to  do  some 
good  by  them  there  in  my  absence.  For  I  have 
seen  the  Lord  making  improvement  of  my  weak 
abilities  as  far  as  they  could  reach,  and  of  myself 
to  the  utmost  ;  which  I  desire  to  bless  his  name 
forever  for. 

The  year  after  those  wars  in  the  country,  God 

having  taken  away  my  first  wife,  the  Lord  gave  me 

^olt     ^   second,  the   eldest  daughter  of  Mr.  Hooker,^  a 

blessed  store  ;   and  the  Lord  hath  made  her  a  great 

'  Her  name  was  Joanna.     See  Farmer's  Gen.  Reg.,  art.  Shepard. 


TWO    OF    HIS    CHILDREN    DIE.  555 

blessing  to  me   to  carry  on  matters  in   the  family  ^^f^- 

with  much  care  and  wisdom,  and  to  seek  the  Lord  

God  of  her  father. 

The  first  child  I  had  by  her,  being  a  son,  died 
through  the  weakness  of  the  midwife,  before  it  saw 
the  sun,  even  in  the  very  birth.     The  second,  whom  1641. 

Oct 

the  Lord  I  bless  hath  hitherto  spared,  viz.  my  little 
Samuel,^  is  yet  living.  The  third  son,  viz.  my  son 
John,  after  sixteen  weeks,  departed,  on  the  Sabbath 
day  morning,  a  day  of  rest,  to  the  bosom  of  rest,  to 
Him  who  gave  it ;  which  was  no  small  affliction  and 
heart-breaking  to  me,  that  I  should  provoke  the 
Lord  to  strike  at  my  innocent  children  for  my  sake. 
The  Lord  thus  afflicting,  yet  continued  peace  to 
the  country,  that  amazing  mercy,  when  all  England 
and  Europe  are  in  a  flame.  The  Lord  hath  set  me 
and  my  children  aside  from  the  flames  of  the  fires  in 
Yorkshire  and  Northumberland,  whence  if  we  had 
not  been  delivered,  I  had  been  in  great  afflictions 
and  temptations,  very  weak  and  unfit  to  be  tossed 
up  and  down,  and  to  bear  violent  persecution.  The 
Lord  therefore  hath  showed  his  tenderness  to  me 
and  mine,  in  carrying  me  to  a  land  of  peace,  though 
a  place  of  trial ;  where  the  Lord  hath  made  the 
savage  Indians,  (who  conspired  the  death  of  all  the 
English  by  Miantinomo  upon  a  sudden,  if  Uncas  i643. 
could  have  been  cut  off  first,  who  stood  in  their 


'  He  was  born  in  October,  1641,  the  death  of  his  colleague,  he  says, 

and  was  brought  up,  I  believe,  in  "  Little    Sam.    Shepard   is   well." 

the  family  of  his  grandfather  Hook-  He  was  ordained  at  Rowley  Nov. 

er,  at  Hartford.     Li  an  unpublished  15,  1()()5,  the  third  minister  of  that 

letter  that  I  have  seen,  written  by  town,  and  died  April  7,  1668,  aged 

Samuel    Stone    of    Hartford,    and  26.    See  Gage's  History  of  Rowley, 

dated  July  19,  1647,  in  which  he  pp.  19,  74. 
gives   a   very  affecting   account  of 


2 


556  HIS    SECOND    WIFE    DIES. 

way,^  and  determined  an  open  war  upon  us  by  the 
privy  suggestions  of  some  neutral  English  on  the 
Island,)  ^  to  seek  for  peace  from  us  upon  our  own 
terms,  without  bloodshed,  August  26,  1645. 

But  the  Lord  hath  not  been  wont  to  let  me  live 
long  without  some  affliction  or  other  ;  and  yet  ever 
jg^g  mixed  with  some  mercy.  And  therefore,  April  the 
April  2d,  1646,  as  he  gave  me  another  son,  John,  so  he 
took  away  my  most  dear,  precious,  meek,  and  loving 
wife,  in  child-bed,  after  three  weeks'  lying-in ;  hav- 
ing left  behind  her  two  hopeful  branches,  my  dear 
children,  Samuel  and  John.  This  affliction  was  very 
heavy  to  me  ;  for  in  it  the  Lord  seemed  to  with- 
draw his  tender  care  for  me  and  mine,  which  he 
graciously  manifested  by  my  dear  wife  ;  also  refused 
to  hear  prayer,  when  I  did  think  he  would  have 
hearkened  and  let  me  see  his  beauty  in  the  land  of 
the  living,  in  restoring  of  her  to  health  again  ;  also, 
in  taking  her  away  in  the  prime  time  of  her  life, 
when  she  might  have  lived  to  have  glorified  the 
Lord  long  ;  also,  in  threatening  me  to  proceed  in 
rooting  out  my  family,  and  that  he  would  not  stop, 
having  begun  here,  as  in  Eli,  for  not  being  zealous 
enough  against  the  sins  of  his  sons.  And  I  saw  that 
if  I  had  profited  by  former  afflictions  of  this  nature, 
I  should  not  have  had  this  scourge.  But  I  am  the 
Lord's,  and  He  may  do  with  me  what  he  will.  He 
did  teach  me  to  prize  a  little  grace,  gained  by  a 
cross,  as  a  sufficient  recompense  for  all  outward 
losses. 


'See    Winthrop,    ii.    131-134;         -  I  suppose  he  means  Gorton  and 
Hutchinson's    Mass.    i.    13G,    138 ;     his  company. 
Hazard's  State  Papers,  ii.  7-9. 


HER    CHARACTER.  557 

But  this  loss  was  very  sfreat.     She  was  a  woman  chap. 

XXIV 

of  incomparable  meekness  of  spirit,  toward  myself -* 

especially,  and  very  loving;  of  great  prudence  to  1646. 
take  care  for  and  order  my  family  affairs,  being 
neither  too  lavish  nor  sordid  in  anything,  so  that 
I  knew  not  what  was  under  her  hands.  She  had  an 
excellency  to  reprove  for  sin,  and  discern  the  evils 
of  men.  She  loved  God's  people  dearly,  and  [was] 
studious  to  profit  by  their  fellowship,  and  therefore 
loved  their  company.  She  loved  God's  word  ex- 
ceedingly, and  hence  was  glad  she  could  read  my 
notes,  which  she  had  to  muse  on  every  week.  She 
had  a  spirit  of  prayer,  beyond  ordinary  of  her  time 
and  experience.  She  was  fit  to  die  long  before  she 
did  die,  even  after  the  death  of  her  first-born,  which 
was  a  great  affliction  to  her.  But  her  work  not 
being  done  then,  she  lived  almost  nine  years  with 
me,  and  was  the  comfort  of  my  life  to  me  ;  and  the 
last  sacrament  before  her  lying-in,  seemed  to  be  full 
of  Christ,  and  thereby  fitted  for  heaven.  She  did 
oft  say  she  should  not  outlive  this  child  ;  and  when 
her  fever  first  began,  by  taking  some  cold,  she  told 
me  so,  that  we  should  love  exceedingly  together, 
because  we  should  not  live  long  together.  Her 
fever  took  away  her  sleep  ;  want  of  sleep  wrought 
much  distemper  in  her  head,  and  filled  it  with 
fantasies  and  distractions,  but  without  raging.  The 
night  before  she  died,  she  had  about  six  hours' 
unquiet  sleep.  But  that  so  cooled  and  settled  her 
head,  that  when  she  knew  none  else,  so  as  to  speak 
to  them,  yet  she  knew  Jesus  Christ,  and  could  speak 
to  him  ;  and  therefore,  as  soon  as  she  awakened  out 
of  sleep,  she  brake  out  into  a  most  heavenly,  heart- 


558 


THOMAS    SHEPARD's    MEMOIR. 


CHAP,  breaking  prayer,  after  Christ,  her  dear  Redeemer, 
> — — '-  for  the  spirit  of  life,  and  so  continued  praying  until 
1646.  ^jjg  j^gj-  jjQyj.  Qf  jjgj.  death,   "Lord,  though  I  [am] 

unworthy.  Lord,  one  word,  one  w^ord,"  &c. ;    and 
so  gave  up  the  ghost. 

Thus  God  hath  visited  and  scourged  me  for  my 
sins,  and  sought  to  wean  me  from  this  world.  But 
I  have  ever  found  it  a  difficult  thing  to  profit  even 
but  a  little  by  the  sorest  and  sharpest  afflictions.^ 


*  Shepard  remained  pastor  of  the 
church  at  Cambridge  till  his  death, 
Aug-.  25,  1649,  in  the  forty-fourth 
year  of  his  age.  He  is  described 
as  "a  poor,  weak,  pale-complec- 
tioned  man."  Edward  Johnson 
speaks  of  him  as  "that  gracious, 
sweet,  heavenly-minded  and  soul- 
ravishing  minister,  Mr.  Shepard;  " 
and  Fuller  classes  him  among  "the 
learned  writers  of  Emmanuel  Col- 
lege." After  the  death  of  his  sec- 
ond wife,  he  married  a  third,  Mar- 
garet Boradel,  by  whom  he  had 
one  son,  Jeremiah,  who  became  tiie 
minister  of  Lynn,  Oct.  6,  1680. 
After  his  death,  she  married  his 
successor  in  the  church  at  Cam- 
bridge, the  Rev.  Jonathan  Mitchell. 
Shepard's  eldest  son,  Thomas,  was 
ordained  pastor  of  the  church  in 
Charlestown,  April  13,  1659,  in 
which  place  he  was  succeeded  by 
his  son  Thomas,  May  5,  1680. 
Samuel,  as  has  been  already  stated 
on  page  555,  was  settled  in  the 
ministry  at  Rowley,  Nov  15,  1665. 
Anna,  the  daughter  of  the  first 
Thomas  Shepard,  of  Charlestown, 
was  married,  in  1682,  to  Daniel 
Quincy.  They  had  one  son,  named 
John  Quincy,  born  July  21,  1689, 
whose  daughter  Elizabeth  married 
William  Smith,  the  minister  of 
Weymouth,  and  his  daughter,  Abi- 
gail, married  the  first  President 
Adams,  and  was  the  mother  of  John 
Quincy  Adams,  who  is  thus  a  de- 
scendant,  in  the    sixth   generation. 


from  Thomas  Shepard,  of  Cam- 
bridge. See  Mather,  i.  343-357, 
ii.  75,  100,  118,  125;  Fuller's 
Hist.  Cambridge,  p.  206  ;  Hazard's 
State  Bapers,  ii.  17 ;  Budington's 
Hist,  of  Charlestown  Church,  pp. 
54,81,219;  Lewis's  Lynn,  p.  194  ; 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  xiii.  152,  xxviii, 
248,  268. 

The  preceding  Memoir  is  printed 
from  the  original  manuscript,  in 
the  hand-writing  of  Thomas  Shep- 
ard. It  is  evident  that  it  was  used 
by  Mather  in  writing  the  Life  of 
him  in  the  Magnalia.  In  1750,  it 
was  in  the  possession  of  Samuel 
Blake,  and,  in  1768,  of  James 
Blake,  the  author  of  the  Annals 
of  Dorchester  ;  from  whom  it  de- 
scended to  the  Rev.  James  Blake 
Howe,  of  Claremont,  N.  H.,  who 
presented  it  to  the  Shepard  Con- 
gregational Society  in  Cambridge, 
for  whose  use  it  was  transcribed 
and  printed  in  1832.  By  the  kind- 
ness of  the  Rev.  John  A.  Albro, 
the  minister  of  that  Society,  I  have 
been  favored  with  the  loan  of  the 
manuscript,  and  been  permitted  to 
reprint  it,  in  a  much  more  accurate 
and  attractive  form.  Although  the 
spelling  has  been  modernized,  and 
the  punctuation  corrected,  not  a 
single  word  of  the  original  has  been 
altered  or  omitted,  wliilst  several 
])assages,  left  out  in  the  first  pub- 
lication of  the  Memoir,  are  now 
inserted. 


INDEX. 


Abergiiiians,  the,  374,  3S6. 

Abigail,  the,  43,  79.     See  Gaiiden. 

Ahouseit  river,  in  Lynn,  169,  407. 

Adams,  John,  President,  his  opinion  concern- 
ing the  treatment  of  the  Indians,  160. 

Adams,  'J'homas,  one  of  the  Massachusetts 
Company,  47,  53,  59,  68,  69,  70,  71,  72,  73, 
74,  76,  77,  73.  79,  81,  82,  83,  86,  37,  90,  92, 
93,94,97,98,99,  101,  106, 107, 109,  113,  119, 
120,  174.  239. 

Adventurers,  the  merchant,  abandon  their 
enterprise,  11,  25.  The  heaver  trade  to  be 
reserved  to  the,  96,  114,  143,  262.  Articles 
of  agreement  between  the  planters  and  ihe, 
100,102.  Privileges  of  the  old,  115.  Pri- 
vate, 151.     Names  of  the,  174. 

Agamenticus,  Mount,  4  72. 

Agawam.  307.  Sagamore  of,  307.  Described, 
410.     See  Ipsicich,  and  Masconnomo. 

Agreement,  at  Cambridge,  England,  86, 
279-284. 

Air  of  Wew-England,  251. 

Alcock,  George,  death  of  his  wife,  314.  No- 
tice of  him,  314. 

Aldersey,  Samuel,  68,  71,  72,  79,  81,  82,  83, 
84,  87,  92,  94,  101,  102,  106,  117,  124,  174. 

Aldworth,  Robert,  362.     See  Monhegan. 

AUerton,  Isaac,  132,  436.  Agent  of  "the  Ply- 
mouth Colony,  333. 

AUin,  John, .Rev.,  340. 

Allotment  of  land,  69,  73,  74-77,  154,  174, 
197-200,  3S4. 

Alured,  Mr.,  526,  527,  542  ;  and  Colonel,  526. 

Ambrose,  the,  127,  137,  310. 

Ames,  William,  Rev.,  512.  His  wife  and 
children  come  to  New  England,  134. 

Anahaptists,  233. 

Andrews,  Richard,  a  benefactor  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Colony,  81. 


Andrews,  Thomas,  79, 90.    Notice  of  him,  81 . 
Angel  Gabriel,  the,  453,  457,  458,  459,  460 

461.     At  anchor  in  King  Road,  450,  451 

Cast  away,  478. 
Antinomian  Controversy,  258,  360,  546.    BeS: 

account  of  the,  360. 
Apparel  for  the  Colonists,  40,  266. 
Aqueihneck,  Rhode  Island,  323. 
Arbella,  the,  93,  125,  127,  137,262,298,  310. 
Archer,  John,  Hev.,  112,  120. 
Arrniiage,  'J'homas,  4.50. 
Arm.s,  lor  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 

43,  54,  63. 
Arnold,  Andrew,  174. 
Articles  of  agreement  between  the  planters 

and  adventurers,  100,  102. 
Aspinwall,   William,  316.      Notice  of  him, 

382. 
Assistants,  chosen,  71.    See  Courts  and  Mas- 
sachusetts. 
Atonement,  first  heretical  work  on  the,  in 

New-Kngland,  233. 
.Auditors  appointed,  81. 
Avery,  John,   Kev.,  485,  486,  487,  488,  489. 

Perishes  at  sea,  490.     See  I'hacher. 
Avery's  Rock,  494. 


B. 

TO,  78,  79,  109. 


Backhouse,  — 

Bacon,  Leonard,  Rev.,  on  Fugill,  525. 

Baker,  John,  333. 

Balcli,  John,  144.     Notice  of  him,  and  of  his 

family,  26. 
Ball,  John,  Rev.,  443. 
Ball.  Thomas,  Rev,,  notice  of,  443. 
Ballard,  Daniel,  70,  79,  81,  82,   86,  87,  94, 

101. 
Bandoleers,  44,  267. 
Barkley,  William,  64. 


560 


INDEX. 


Barlow,  Bishop,  422. 

Barton's  Point,  170. 

Basseit, ,  a  student  of  Christ's  Col- 
lege, 505. 

Batchelor,  Stephen,  Rev.,  409. 

Baieman, ,  90,  93. 

Beard,  Thomas,  the  first  shoemaker,  186, 
187. 

Beaver -skins,  309,  320.  To  be  sold,  93. 
Trade  in,  reserved  to  the  adventurers,  96, 
114,  148,  262. 

Becon,  Richard,  475. 

Beecher,  Thomas,  101.  Master  of  the  Tal- 
bot, 108,  172,  262.     Notice  of  him,  219. 

Belknap,  Jeremy,  Rev.,  cited,  34. 

Bellingham,  Richard,  Gov.,  13,  48,  174. 

Belts,  John,  84. 

Biby,  Simon,  423. 

Bilson, ,  76. 

Biscoe,  ,  551,  552. 

BlacUstone,  WiUiam,  150,  316,  380.  Account 
of  him,  169  ;  his  claims,  170;  and  his  fam- 
ily, 171.     See  Boston. 

Blackstone's  Point,  381. 

Black  William,  Duke  of  Saugus,  406. 

Blake,  Goodman,  231. 

Blake,  James,  481. 

Bland,  Mr.,  Rev.  Thomas  Shepard's  grand- 
father, 499. 

Bonitos,  226,  229,  464,  467. 

Boon  Island,  472. 

Boreman,  Felix,  63. 

Bostock,  Thomas,  Master  of  the  Defence, 
543. 

Boston,  England,  described,  48,  49. 

Boston,  New-England,  Blackstone  at,  150, 
169,  3S0.  Settlement  of,  313,  381.  Win- 
throp  removes  to,  381.     Described,  397. 

Boston  Castle,  account  of,  338,  359. 

Boston  harbour,  described,  393.  Islands  in, 
405. 

Boston  men,  the,  48,  440. 

Bowditch,  Nathaniel,  178. 

Bowry,  Richard,  70. 

Brackenbury,  Richard,  notice  of,  30.  His 
deposition,  256. 

Brackenbury,  William,  383. 

Bradford's  and  Winslow's  Journal,  effect  of 
the  publication  of  5. 

Bradford,  William,  Gov.,  243,  290,  299.  On 
Massachusetts  Bay,  19.  On  Lyford  and 
Oldham,  20.  On  Smith,  151.  On  the  affair 
of  the  Biownes,  2t)7.  Kndicott's  letter  to 
him,  cited,  290.  Letters  of  Fuller,  thc^  phy- 
sician, to,  cited,  299,  312,  314,  348.  Sends 
to  Salem  for  ammunition,  377.  Cited,  32, 
33,  394. 

Bradsliaw, ,  109. 

Bradshaw,  Job,  101,  174. 

Bradshaw,  Joseph,  82,  174. 

Bradstreet,  Simon,  Gov.,  97,  124,  126,  127, 
304,  319,  339,  356,  378,  381.  Notice  of 
him,  125. 

Brand,  Thomas,  165.     See  Brude. 

Brereton,  Sir  William,  his  claim,  and  propo- 
sition to  the  Massachusetts  Company,  51, 
122. 

Brewster,  William,  151. 

Brickhed,  Thomas,  04. 


Bridge,  Mr.,  Rev.,  541. 

Bridge,  John,  notice  of,  529. 

Bright,  Francis,  Rev.,  67,  143,  144,  152,  160, 
104,  191,  194,  216,  376,  3:i7.  His  agree- 
ment with  the  JVIassachusetts  Company, 
207-209.  Account  of  him  ;  his  return  to 
England,  316. 

Brown,  Edmund,  Rev.,  357. 

Browne, ,  65. 

Browne, ,  222. 

Browne,  John,  61,  67,  71,  194. 

and  Samuel,   144,   159,   160, 


168,  174,  191,  296.  Their  difficulty  with 
Endicott,  89,  290.  A  committee  appointed 
to  investigate  the  affair,  89,  288.  Their 
letters  to  be  opened,  91  ;  and  detained,  92. 
Furnished  with  a  copy  of  the  accusation 
against  them,  94,  288.  Their  complaint, 
108  ;  and  statement  of  grievances,  123,238. 
In  what  respect  guilty,  196.  Statement  of 
their  case,  287.  A  tablet  to  the  memory 
of,  in  the  church  at  Salem,  288.  See 
Broicne,  Samuel. 

Browne,  Kellam,  282,  283. 

Browne,  Samuel,  61,  67,  194. 

Brownists,  the  Massachusetts  colonists  ac- 
cused of  being,  331. 

Brude,  Thomas.  103,  164. 

Bulkley,  Peter,  Rev  ,  357,  543. 

Bull,  Di.xy,  the  pirate,  account  of,  362. 

Burgess,  William,  secretary  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Company,  71,  72,  73,  124,  128, 
160,  191. 

Burleigh,  Captain,  220. 

Burnell, ,  82. 

Burrowes,  Mr.,  Rev.,  542. 

Bushell,  Ruth,  525,  526. 

Bushord,  Richard,  174. 


Cambridge,  England,  Agreement  at,  86,  279- 
284. 

Cambridge,  New  England,  synod  at,  360, 
547.     See  Ncwtoicn  and  Synod. 

Cannon,  for  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  43. 

Cape  Ann,  men  left  at,  7.  Two  fishing  ves- 
sels employed  at,  8.  Disorders  of  the  men 
left  at,  10  Most  of  the  men  at  return  to 
England,  11.  Those  remaining  remove  to 
Naumkeng,  12.  Cattle  sent  to,  12,  216. 
Conant,  Lyford,  and  Oldham  at,  20.  Error 
concerning,  22.  J'ishing  at,  22.  Planta- 
tion at,  23,  310.  Contest  about  a  fishing- 
stage  at,  32.  A  patent  for,  obtained  by  the 
company  of  New  Plymouth,  33.  Capacity 
of  the  harbour  of,  233.  See  Naumkcag  and 
NciD  Plijmotith. 

Caps,  41.     See  Monmouth. 

Caron,  Joseph,  81,  174. 

Carvel,  227. 

Casson.  Edward,  64. 

Castle,  Boston,  account  of  the,  358,359. 

Cattle,  first  brought  to  Plymouth,  9,  216. 
Sent  to  Naumkeag,  12,216;  to  the  Massa- 
chusetts Colony,  66,  182,  190,216,310.  The 
Massachusetts  Colony  better  provided  with, 
than  the  Colony  of  New  Plymouth,  216. 
More  wanted,  201. 


INDEX. 


561 


Chadderton,  Laurence,  Rev.,  notice  of,  504. 

Chalmers,  George,  his  assertions,  with  regard 
to  the  Massacliusetts  company,  89  ;  dis- 
proved, 288  ;  with  regard  to  the  Massachu- 
setts colonists,  296.     Cited,  60. 

Champney,  Richard,  543.    Notice  of  him,  538. 

Chape,  meanmg  of,  63. 

Chaplains,  of  the  General  Court  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Company,  chosen,  112. 

Chappel,  William,  disputes  with  Cotton,  422. 

Charity,  the,  353. 

Charles  I.,  291,292.  The  patent  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Company  confirmed  by  him,  13, 
372.     His  proclamation,  84,  157. 

Charles,  the,  311,  330. 

Charlestown,  259.  Everett's  address  at,  127. 
Walford,  the  smith,  at,  150,  152,  349,  375. 
Fuller,  the  physician  of  Plymouth,  at,  299, 
312,314.  Settlement  of,  313,  374.  Roger 
Clap  at,  348.  Records  of,  369-387.  The 
Spragues  at,  374.  First  settlers  of,  375. 
The  town  laid  out,  376.  A  fort  built,  377. 
Winlhrop  arrives  at,  378.  A  church  gath- 
ered, 379.  No  good  water  at,  380.  First 
planters  of  382.     Described,  400. 

Charlton,  Robert,  64. 

Chatham.     See  Manamoyk. 

Chelsea.     See  Rumney  Marsh  and  Winnis- 
simet. 
-X^Chickatabot,  sachem  of  Neponset,  305,  307, 
'  309,  395.     Unfriendly  to  the  English,  305. 

Churches  and  public  works,  the  charges  of, 
how,  and  by  whom,  to  be  defrayed,  96,  148, 
187. 

Churchill, ,  63. 

Clap,  Edward,  354. 

Clap,  family,  354,  367. 

Clap,  Roger,  123,  260.  His  Memoirs,  343, 
367.  His  early  life  in  England,  345,  346. 
Sails  from  Plymouth,  and  arrives  at  Nan- 
tasket,  347.  At  Charlestown,  348  ;  Water- 
town,  349;  Dorchester,  350.  Admitted 
into  church  fellowship,  355.  Appointed 
Captain  of  Boston  Castle,  357.  Notice  of, 
and  of  his  family,  366.  Cited,  170.  See 
Western  men. 

Clarendon,  cited,  60,  99. 

Clarke, ,  79,  81. 

Claydon,  Barnaby,  61,  178. 

Claydon,  Richard,  61,  62,  177. 

Cleaver,  Robert,  Rev.,  notice  of,  444. 

Clothing,  for  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  62. 

Cobbett,  Thomas,  Rev.,  357. 

Cockerill,  Mr.,  tutor  in  Emmanuel  college, 
Cambridge,  503. 

Coddington,  William,  48,  125,  126,  127,  298, 
313,  319,  336,  545.  Death  of  his  wife,  314. 
Account  of  him,  337. 

Coke,  Sir  John,  84. 

Colbrand.     See  Colburn. 

Colbron.     See  Colburn. 

Colburn,  William,  86,  87.     Notice  of,  338. 

Cole,  Rice,  333. 

Collins,  Edward,  notice  of,  531. 

Commissioners,  sent  from  England,  365. 

Common  stock  of  the  Massachusetts  Com- 
pany, 120,  121,  125. 

Conant,  Christopher,  23. 

Conant,  Roger,   106,  144,  194,  243,  258.     At 

36 


Nantasket,    Cape  Ann,   and  Naumkeag; 
20.     Appointed  agent  for  the  adventurers, 

23.  Notice  of,  and  of  his  family,  23.     Re- 
moves to  Cape  Ann,  25.     Petition  of,  27. 

Conant,  Roger,  jr.,  the  first  child  born  at  Sa- 
lem, 24. 
Conanfs  Island,  Governor's  Garden  so  called, 

24.  Granted  to  Winthrop,  105.     See  Gov- 
ernor's Garden. 

Converse,  Edward,  401.     Notice  of,  383. 

Cony,  Thomas,  436.     Notice  of  him,  48. 

Cooke,  Edward,  79,  81,  86,  101. 

Cooke,  George,  532,  544. 

Cooke,  Joseph,  544.     Notice  of  him,  531. 

Corbet,  Mrs.,  541. 

Cornish,  Jeffrey,  457. 

Cotton,  John,  Rev.,  48,  103,  113,  164,  260, 
283,  304,  317,  337,  340,356,357,506,512, 
528,  530,  546,  547.  On  Humphrey,  106. 
His  farewell  sermon  to  the  Massachusetis 
colonists,  126,  296.  His  iarm,  400.  His 
Lifeand  Letters,  417-444.  Obliged  to  con- 
ceal himself  428,  432.  Notice  of,  429  ; 
and  of  his  family,  429,  433.  Resigns  his 
vicarage,  436.  His  reasons  for  removing 
to  New-England,  438. 

Cotton,  Seaborn,  birth,  and  notice  of,  438. 

Coulson,  Christopher,  47,  68,  71,  72,  82,  86, 
87,  88,  101,  107. 

Courts,  General,  of  the  Massachusetts  Com- 
pany, in  London,  73,  79,  82,  86,  87,  8ci,  90, 
94,  101,  109,  113,  119,  120,  192. 

of  Assistants,  73,  76,  98,  107,  125,  127. 

Coventry,  Thomas,  Lord,  84. 

Cox,  Thomas,  master  of  the  George  Bonaven- 
ture,  143,  172. 

Cradock,  Matthew,  29,  30,  47,  50,  51,  53,  59, 
65,  68,  70,  72,  73,  74,  76,  77,  78,  79,  81,  82, 
83,  88,  90,  91,  92,  93,  94,98,99,  101,102, 
105,  106,  107,  109,  113,  116,  119,  120,  141, 
142,  155,  161,  162,  163,  165,  166,  171,  174, 
179,  ISO,  131,  182,  183,  184,  185,  186,  289, 
292,  361.  Governor  of  the  New-England 
Company,  30.  His  house,  where  situated, 
74.  His  proposition  to  transfer  the  gov- 
ernment and  patent  of  the  plantation  to 
New-England,  85,  86,  37,  88,  90,  91,  97,  98, 
176,232.  His  letter  to  Endicott,  129-137, 
133.  Account  of  and  of  his  family,  137. 
His  plantation  at  Mistick,  137,313,374,404. 

Crane, ,  70,  78,  81,  82,  94. 

Crowther,  William,  70,  174. 

Cushman,  Robert,  on  the  preacher  for  Ply- 
mouth, 20.     Cited,  33. 


D. 


Darby,  William,  S2, 174,  410. 

Darley,  Henry,  523. 

Darley,  Richard,  523,  525. 

Darley,  Sir  Richard,  523,  525,  527. 

Davenport,  John,  Rev.,  70,  90,  94,  97,  99,  101, 
102,109,120,  123,  135,  143,  165,357,419, 
433.     Notice  of  him,  102.     Cited,  428. 

Davenport,  Richard,  30,  65,  81,  86,  87,359. 
Notice  of  him,  31.     His  death,  358. 

Davis,  John,  cited,  34. 

Davis,  Richard,  79,  86,  87,  174. 


562 


INDEX. 


Defence,  the,  517,  543.     See  Bostock. 

Dicker,  meaning  of,  41. 

Dickinson,  Mr.  Rev.,  504. 

Diligence,  the,  449,  452,  453. 

Dix,  Anthony,  notice  of,  362. 

Dod,  John,  Kev.,  notice  of,  444. 

Dodge,  William,  notice  of,  179. 

Dodge,  William,  Jr.,  179. 

Dorchester,  England,  the  cradle  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Colony,  50. 

Dorchester,  Lord  Viscount,  the  patent  of  the 
Massachusetts  Company  obtained  through 
him,  CO. 

Dorchester,  New-England,  settlement  of,  314, 
350,  360.  Roger  Clap  at,  350.  Described, 
395.     See  Western  men. 

Dorchester  Fields,  349. 

Dorchester  Neck,  350. 

Dorchester  Planters,  145,  179,  194.  Their 
controversy  with  the  new  comers,  31. 

Dorrell,  John,  his  grant  from  Robert  Gorges, 
169. 

Dorset,  planters  from,  179.  Sixty  families 
expected  from,  260.     See  Western  men. 

Dove,  Thomas,  Rev.,  Bishop  of  Peterbor- 
ough, notice  of,  515. 

Dover,  N.  H.,  the  Hiltons  settle  at,  315. 

Downing,  Calibute,  97. 

Downing,  Emanuel,  notice  of,  and  of  his  fam- 
ily, 97'. 

Downing,  Sir  George,  97,  125. 

Ducks,  wild,  in  New-England,  253. 

Dudley,  Thomas,  29,  43,  86,  94,  97,  98,  99, 
101,  102,  106,  107,  113,  116,  125,  126,  282, 
298,  316,  317,  337,  339,  356,  378,  381.  De- 
puty Governer  of  the  Massachusetts  Col- 
ony, 127,  305.  His  letter  to  the  Countess 
of  Lincoln,  301-341.  Account  of,  and  of 
his  family,  304.     Errors  of,  13,  308. 

Dummer,  Richard,  411. 

Dunkirk,  and  the  Dunkirkers,  218,  330. 

Dunsler,  Henry,  Rev.,  account  of,  552,  553 
Durbridge, ,  62. 

Durley,  Henry,  174. 


E. 


Eagle,  the,  92,  99,  101.     See  Arbella. 

Earls-Colne,  description  of,  514.  The  lecture 
established  at,  514.     See  Wilson. 

Easton,  Nicholas,  171. 

Eaton,  Nathaniel,  552,  553.  Account  of  him, 
551. 

Eaton,  Theophilus,  53,  59,  60,  71,  72,  76,  77, 
81,  82,  S3,  84,  86,  87,  92,  103,  106,  109,  113, 
116,  120,  126,  551.     Notice  of  him,  123. 

Edes,  William,  179. 

Edmonds,  James,  47. 

Elbridge,  Gyles,  362.     See  Monhegan. 

Eldred.     See  Alurcd. 

Election  Day,  first  of  the  Massachusetts 
Company,  70. 

Eliot,  John,  Rev.,  the  Apostle,  258,  356,  357, 
397,  511,  512.  Account  of,  and  of  his  fam- 
ily, 365. 

Eliot,  William,  4f^6. 

Elizabeth,  the,  452,  453. 

Elizabeth  Bonadventure,  415.     See  Graves. 


Elizabeth,  Queen,  and  Sir  Walter  Mildmay, 
421.  Her  remark  respecting  Bishop  Dove, 
515. 

Emigration,  obstructions  to,  260,  428,  448. 
See  3fassachnsetis. 

Emmanuel  College,  most  of  the  magistrates 
and  ministers  of  JNew-England  educated  at, 
357,  421.  Its  founder,  421,  504.  bee 
Cliaclderton,  Mildmay,  and  Preston. 

Endicott,  John,  Gov.,  29,  43,  63,  71,97,98, 
106,  123,  142,  143,  147,  152,  156,  159,  160, 
163,  171,  174,  191,  215,  217,  319,  320,  321, 
356,  373,  376.  Emigration  with,  13,  310. 
Johnson  on,  13.  At  Salem,  30,  372,  373. 
Sends  to  Plymouth  for  a  physician,  32. 
Governor  of  the  plantation  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  60,  173,  175,  193.  Letters  from, 
83,  89,  109,  131,  141,  249.  Letters  to,  from 
the  Company  in  England,  99,  136,  290,  291. 
Cradock's  letter  to  him,  129  -  137.  Death 
of  his  wife,  131,  156,  292.  Marries  again, 
131.  His  instructions,  63,  132,133,139- 
191,  146,  153.  How  justified  in  his  pro- 
ceedings towards  the  Brownes,  159,  160, 
196.  His  daring  spirit,' 289.  His  letter  to 
Gov.  Bradford,  cited,  290.  Account  of 
him,  291. 

England,  lectures  and  lecturers  in,  70,  513, 
514.  Mortality  in,  351,  500.  Commis- 
sioners sent  from,  365. 

Everett,  Edward,  153.  His  addresses  at 
Charlestown,  127,  552.     Cited,  31,  365. 

Ewstead,  Richard,  165. 


F. 


Fagot,  meaning  of,  39. 

Familists,  troubles  from  the,  546,  550.  See 
Antinomians,  and  Hutchinson. 

Family  Registers,  to  be  kept,  177,  188. 

Famine,  in  the  Colony,  351,  352. 

Farmer,  Mr. ,  Rev.  Thomas  Shepard's  brother- 
in-law,  501. 

Farmer,  John,  cited,  313,  335,  341. 

Farr,  George,  notice  of,  180. 

Fasts,  kept  by  the  Colonists,  224,226,316. 
One  at  Plymouth,  316. 

Felt,  Joseph  B.,  Rev.,  errors  of,  corrected, 
31,  54,  110,  132,  179,  278. 

Fenwick,  Mrs.,  528. 

Feoffees,  for  supporting  lecturers,  70.  See 
Lectures. 

Fines,  Charles,  notice  of,  293. 

Fish  and  fishing,  on  the  north-eastern  coasts 
of  New-England,  5,  309.  At  Cape  Ann,  8, 
22.  Ill  success  in,  8,  10.  At  Newfound- 
land, 9,  184;  Monhegan,  22;  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  22.     Implements  for,  184. 

Fishing-vessels,  to  be  built,  181. 

Flint,  Henry,  Rev.,  357. 

Flyer,  Francis,  101. 

Fodder,  meaning  of,  39. 

Ford,  Kdward,  94,  174. 

Four  Sisters,  the,  39,  78,  107,  154,  175,  180, 
184,  216,  217,  242,  249,  261.    See  Harman. 

Fower,  Barnabas,  451.     Notice  of  him,  450. 

Fox,  Thomas,  Cradock's  servant,  to  be  whip- 
ped, 137. 


INDEX. 


563 


Foxcroft,  George,  70,  71,  72,  73,  76,  78,  79, 
S6,  87,  90,  94.  93,  99,  101,  109,  174. 

France.     See  Huguenots. 

Frost,  Edmund,  notice  of,  539. 

Fugill,  Thomas,  notice  of,  525. 

Fuller,  Samuel,  the  physician  at  Plymouth, 
sent  for  to  Salem,  32.  Morton's  insinuation 
respecting,  131.  At  Charlestown,  299,  312, 
314.  His  letters  to  Gov.  Bradford,  cited, 
126,  299,  312,  314,  348. 

Fuller,  Thomas,  Rev.,  on  Ward,  426.  On 
Dod,  444.     Cited,  421,  537. 


G. 


Gace,  John,  56. 

Gager,  VViliiam,  316.  His  death  ;  notice  of 
him,  317. 

Gardiner,  Lion,  306.     Cited,  454. 

Gardiner,  Sir  Christopher,  361.  His  en- 
deavours to  injure  the  Massachusetts  Colo- 
ny, 321,  335.     Account  of  him,  3-33. 

Gardner,  ,  85. 

Gardner,  Henry,  his  New-England's  Vindi- 
cation, cited,  322. 

Gardner,  Thomas,  an  overseer  at  Cape  Ann, 
23. 

Garrad,  or  Garrett,  Richard,  his  death,  and 
notice  of  him,  329. 

Gauden,  Henry,  master  of  the  Abigail,  43. 

General  Considerations  for  planting  New- 
England,  269-278.     Authorship  of,  27S. 

General  Court,  prayer  at  the  opening  of  the  ; 
antiquity  of  the  practice,  112.  See  Massa- 
chusetts. 

George  Bonaventure,  the,  39,  138,  143,  147, 
154,  163,  166,  172,  176,  132,216.     See  Cox. 

Gibbons,  Edward,  account  of,  383. 

Gibbs,  John,  master  of  the  Lion's  Whelp, 
172,  222. 

Gladwing,  John,  64. 

Glass,  for  windows,  264. 

Glover,  John,  70,  174.     Notice  of,  383. 

Goffe,  Edward,  notice  of,  539. 

Goffe,  Thomas,  47,  50,  51,  53,  59,  64,  65,  68, 
69,  72,  73,  74,  76,  77,  78,  79,  82,  83,  86,  87, 
88,  90,  91,  92,  93,  106,  107,  108,  113,  114, 
116,  125,  126,  156,239.  Interested  in  the 
Massachusetts  Company,  4,  29.  Deputy 
Governor,  30.  Notice  of  him,  70.  His 
dog,  225. 

Goodwin,  Thomas,  Rev.,  account  of  him,  515. 

Gorges,  John,  52.-- Succeeds  to  his  brother's 
patent,  170. 

Gorges,  Robert,  148.  His  colony,  21, 169,394. 
His  patent,  51.  His  grant  to  Dorrell,  169. 
See  Gorges,  John. 

Gorges,  Sir  Ferdinando,  143,  331,451.  Sends 
overThomson  and  the  Hiltons,  315.  Cited, 
29,  443. 

Gorton,  Samuel,  151,  161. 

Gott,  Charles,  notice  of,  30. 

Governor's  Garden,  originally  called  Conant's 
Island,  24.  Granted  to  Winthrop,  105, 152. 
See  ConanVs  Island. 

Grahame,  James,  cited,  135,  288. 

Grampus,  226,  229,  461,  463,  464,  467. 

Graves,  "Thomas,   the  engineer,  53,  67,  144, 


157,  191,  194,  250,  259,  375,  337.  His  con- 
tract, 56.  Account  of  him,  152.  Letter 
from,  152,  264-266,  310.  His  qualifica- 
tions, 153.     Lays  out  Charlestown,  376. 

Graves,  Thomas,  mate  of  the  Talbot,  153. 
Notice  of  him,  262.  Master  of  the  Eliza- 
beth Bonadventure,  415. 

Garrett,  Hugh,  383. 

Greene,  John,  337. 

Guns  and  gunpowder,  proclamation  to  pre- 
vent the  sale  of,  42. 


H. 
-,  Rev.,  427. 


Hacket,  ■ 

Hag-birds,  229,  464. 

Half-moon,  the,  7. 

Hampden,  John,  60,  293,  317. 

Handmaid,  the,  310,  311.  Sails  for  England, 
321. 

Hanscombe,  Thomas,  61. 

Harlakenden  family,  516,531.  Kindness  of 
the  members  of  the,  toward  Shepard,  520. 

Harlakenden,  Roger,  532,  541,  542,  543,  544. 
Account  of  him,  517.     His  death,  554. 

Harman,  Roger,  master  of  the  Four  Sisters, 
175. 

Harret,  Robert,  63. 

Harvard  College,  founded,  551.  See  New- 
town. 

Harvard,  John,  Rev.,  551.  Account  of  him, 
552. 

Harwood,  Gfeorge,  43,  47,  51,  53,  59,  61,  72, 
73,  76,  77,  73,  79,  81,  82,  86,  87,  88,  91,  94, 
98,  99,101,107,  113,  119,  120,  121,  174,289. 
Notice  of  him,  70. 

Harwood,  Henry,  notice  of,  323. 

Haward,  Richard,  178. 

Haynes,  John,  Gov.,  512,  517. 

Heime,  Gawen,  64. 

Hewes, ,  his  contest  with  the  people 

of  New-Plymouth,  32. 

Hewson,  John,  46. 

Hewson,  Thomas,  47,  70,  76,  82,  83,  90,  92, 
93,  94,  93,  99,  101,  109,  174. 

Higden,  Peter,  486. 

Higginson,  Francis,  Rev.,  13,  30,  65,  67,  107, 
135,  143,  144,  147,  191,  194,  290,  291.  Em- 
igration with,  14,  55,  310.  Letters  to,  from 
the  Company,  in  England,  99,  237.  His 
agreement  with  the  Massachusetts  Com- 
pany, 209-212.  His  family,  211.  His 
Journal,  213-233.  His  wife,  236.  His 
death,  236,  317.  His  New-England's  Plan- 
tation, 239- 259.  His  Journal  never  printed 
in  England,  242.  Accused  of  exaggera- 
tion, 213,  310.  Letter  from,  to  his  friends 
at  Leicester,  England,  260-264.  Account 
of  him,  and  of  his  family,  317.  See  Massa- 
chusetts, and  Salem. 

Hissinson,  John,  Rev.,  account  of,  166. 
Cited,  307. 

Hildersham,  Arthur,  427.    Notice  of  him,  66. 

Hilton,  Edward  and  William,  sent  over  by 
Gorges  and  Mason,  315.     See  Dover. 

Hohart,  Peter,  Rev.,  357. 

Hodsen,  Daniel,  174. 

Hog  Island,  472. 


564 


INDEX. 


Holbeech,  Mr  ,  522. 

Holden,  Randall,  161. 

Holmes,  Ahiel,  Rev.,  cited,  318. 

Hooker,  Thomas,  Rev.,  260,  304,  357,  365, 
42S,  439,  440,  506,  513,  52S,  530.  Notice 
of  him,  314.  Account  of,  and  of  his  family, 
512.     Oil  Eaton,  551.     Cited,  164. 

Hope,  the,  532. 

Hopkins,  Edward,  103. 

Home,  John,  30. 

Horses,  first  brought  to  Massachusetts,  14. 

Hough,  Atherton,  48,  431. 

Houghton,  Henry,  notice  of,  182. 

House  of  correction,  to  be  established,  177. 

Houses,  two  burnt,  338. 

Hiiyt,  Simon,  375. 

Hul)bard,  F.  M.,  on  Endicott,  292. 

Hulibard,  William,  Kev.,  357.  Errors  of, 
13,  24,  160.  His  Narrative,  17.  Notice 
of  him,  31.  O.i  Smith,  151.  Cited,  8,  66, 
126,  299,  313,  318,  449,  478. 

Hudson,  Henry,  his  ship,  7. 

Hudson,  William,  383. 

Hudson's  river,  discovery  of,  7. 

Huet,  Ephraim,  Rev.,  164,  357. 

Huguenots,  persecution  of  the,  274.  See 
ProtestarUs. 

Hull,  originally  called  Nantasket,  19. 

Huml)le  Request  of  Wiiithrop  and  his  com- 
pany, to  their  brethren  of  the  Church  of 
England,  293-299. 

Humphrey,  John,  29,  43,  60,  65,  68,  69,  70, 
71,  72,  73.  76,  78,  86,  87,  94,  97,  93,  101, 
102,  105,  107,  109,  113,  119,  120,  125,  127, 
174.  2S2.  On  the  Planter's  Plea,  16. 
Treasurer  of  the  adventurers,  24.  Notice 
of  him,  106. 

Humphrev,  the  Lady  Susan,  303. 

Hutcliins,  Thomas,  59,  68,  69,  70,  71,  72,  76, 
77,  81,  82,  88,  101,  107,  174. 

Hutchinson,  Anne,  360,  546,  548.  See  Anfi- 
nomiay^s. 

Hutchinson,  Thomas,  Gov.,  cited,  24,  2S,  48, 
60,  116,  127,  151,  164,  187,  299,  326,  402. 
On  Endicott,  292. 


306,  364,  550.     Sachems  of  the,  548,  549. 

See  Monanattuck,  and  Sasakus. 
Indians,  Tarrateens,  257. 
Ingersoll,   Richard,  account  of,  and   of   his 

family,  178. 

Ironsyde, ,  87. 

Islands,  in  Boston  harbour,  405. 
Isles  of  Shoals,  473. 


^ 


Indians,  probably  had  intercourse  with  the 
Jews,  12.  Irregular  trading  with  the,  83, 
84,  309.  Conversion  of  the,  133,  142,  202, 
211,  215,  258,  273,  364.  Massacre  by,  in 
Virginia,  136.      Tre-.itment  of  the,  159,  160, 

/"  172.  258.    'I'heir  land  to  be  purchased,  176. 

]     Spirits  not  to  be   sold   to,  190.     Manners, 

f  custom.?,  and  religion,  of  the,  256-258. 
Their  sagamores  or  sachems,  256,  305-307. 

I  Destroyed  by  pestilence,  256,  277.  Their 
dress,  256  ;  weapons,  habits,  household 
stuff,  houses,  and  gods,  257  ;  their  lan- 
guage, 258.  Seven,  killed  in  a  quarrel,  at 
Weymouth,  305.  Small  pox  among  the, 
303,306,336.  Plot  of  the,  309.  Conspiracy 
anjong  the,  377.     See  Aberginians. 

,  Massachusetts,  306. 

,  Narragansett,  306. 

,  Nipmuck  or  Nipnet,  306. 

•,  Pequod,    306,    363.      Exterminated, 


J. 

Jacie,  Henry,  Rev.,  his  letter  to  John  Win- 
throp,  Jr.,  cited,  522. 

James,  the,  449,  453.     See  Taylor. 

James  I.,  patent  granted  by,  28.    His  procla- 
„^    malion,  83. 
T^Waines,  Sagamore,  307. 
'"     Janson,  Sir  Brian,  125,  126. 

Jeffrey,  or  Jeffries,  William,  170.  Account 
of  him,  171. 

Jeffrey's  Neck,  and  Creek,  171. 

Jennings,  William,  383. 

Jessop, ,  Rev.,  457. 

Jessop,  Constantine,  Rev.,  457. 

Jewel,  ihe,  127,  137,  310,  311. 

Jews,  the  Indians  probably  had  intercourse 
with  the,  12. 

John,  Sagamore,  306,  307,  337,  374. 

Johnson,  Edward,  on  Endicott,  13  ;  Skelton, 
143  ;  Isaac  Johnson,  318;  Maverick,  322. 
On  the  famine,  352;  Boston  Castle,  359; 
the  Aberginians,  374.  His  description  of 
Dorchester,  396;  of  Roxbury,  397;  of  Bos- 
ton, 399  ;  orCharlestovvn,406;  of  Newtown, 
402;  of  Walerlowii,  403  ;  of  Lynn,  409;  of 
Ipswich,  410;  of  Newtiury,  411.  On  the 
Vorkshire  men  in  New-England,  523.  On 
Dunsier,  553  ;  Shepard,  558.  Cited,  126, 
170,  298,  316,  318,  336,  380,  384,  449,  536, 
551. 

Johnson,  Francis,  40. 

Johnson,  Gowen,  428. 

Johnson,  Isaac,  29,  65,  71,  72,  79,  80,  81,  86, 
87,  90,  91,  93,  94,  97,  98,  99,  101,  102,  105, 
106,  109,  113,  116,  120,  125,  127,  155,  174, 
241,  261,  282,  289,  298,  313,  316,  319,  356, 
378.  His  death,  317,  381.  Account  of  him, 
317. 

Johnson,  th 'Lady  Arbella.  303.  Her  death, 
notice  of  her,  318. 

Joint  Slock,  of  the  Massachusetts  Company, 
95,  98,  116,  125.  Arrearages  of  the,  110. 
Liabilities  ('ftlie,113.  Privileges  of  the,  114. 

Jones,  Captain  of  the  Mayflower,  alleged 
treachery  of,  4,  308. 

Jones,  John.  Rev.,  notice  of,  543. 

Josselyn,  John,  cited,  322,  464,  551,  553. 

K. 

Kedby,  L.,  319. 

Kennebec,  settlement  at  the  mouth  of  the,  21. 

Kenrick,  George  and  John,  455. 

Kirk,  Jarvis,  64. 


Land,  allotment  of,  69,  73,  74,  77,  154,  174, 
197-200,  384.    To  be  held  by  service,  187. 


INDEX. 


565 


>4 


Laud,  William,  Archbishop,  113,  134,  274, 
291,  365,  527.  On  Davenport,  103.  His 
prosecution  of  Williams  and  Osbaldistone, 
426.  Silences  Shepard,  518,  519  ;  and  cites 
him  before  him,  520. 

Leach,  Lawrence,  account  of,  160. 

Lectures  and  lecturers,  in  England,  70,  513, 
514. 

Letters,  from  Endicott,  to  the  Company  in 
England,  S3,  89,  109,  131,  141,249  ;  to  Gov. 
Bradford,  290.  From  the  Company  in 
England,  to  Endicott,  99,  136,  141-171, 
172-191,290,  291  ;  to  the  ministers,  2S7 - 
2S9.  From  Cradock  to  Endicott,  129-137. 
From  Higginson  to  his  friends  in  Leicester, 
England,  260  -204.  From  Fuller,  the  phy- 
sician, to  Gov.  Bradford,  299,  312,  314,  348. 
From  Dudley  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln, 
301-341.  Of  John  Cotton,  432-444.  From 
Jacie  to  Winihrop,  522. 

Leveretl,  John,  Gov.,  48. 

Leverett,  Thomas,  48.  Account  of,  and  of 
his  family.  423. 

Levett,  Christopher,  cited,  33. 

Lewis,  Humphry,  71. 

Lincoln,  Bridget,  Countess  of,  303.  Dudley's 
letter  to  her,  301  -341. 

Lincoln  family,  connexion  of  the,  with  the 
New-England  settlements,  303. 

Lincoln.     See  JVilliams. 

Lincolnshire,  colonists  expected  from,  260. 

Lions,  in  New-England,  248. 

Lion's  Whelp,  the,  39,  50,  64,  65,  90,  92,  108, 
132,  143,  147,  154,  159,  162,  163,  166,  172, 
176,  179,  183,  216,  217,  220,  222,  229,  230. 
231,  233,  287,  310,  311,  316,  333,  336,  340.' 
Her  cargo,  330.     See  Gibbs,  and  Peirce. 

Lobsters,  250. 

London.     See  Mountain. 

Ludlow,  Roger,  260,  314,  319,  347,  356,  359, 
378,  380.  'Notice  of  him,  123. 

Lyford,  John,  at  Nantaskel,  Cape  Ann,  and 
iNaumkeag,  20.  Notice  of  him,  20.  His 
death,  27. 

Lynn,  settlement  of,  314.  Described,  409. 
See  Sauffus. 


M. 


Mackerel,  232,  249,  470. 

Magistrates,  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony, 
356. 

Mallion,  John,  47,  54. 

Manamoyk,  Chatham,  323. 

Mandilioiis,  41. 

Manstrey,  Nathaniel,  174. 

Mapler,  Mr.,  Rev.  Thomas  Shepard's  brother- 
in-law,  501. 

Marhlehead,  description  of,  244,  410. 

Marshall,  Stephen,  Rev.,  112  ;  notice  of  him, 
521. 

Martyn,  Sir  Henry,  93. 

Martyr,  Justin,  cited,  237. 

Mary,  the,  452,  453,  459. 

Mary  and  John,  the,  123,  310,  31 ) ,  314,  348. 
.         See  Squeb. 

Masconnomo  or  Masconnomet,  sagamore  of 
Agawam,  307. 


Mason,  John,  Thomson  and  the  Hiltons,  sent 
over  by,  315.  See  Gorges,  Hilton,  and 
Thomson. 

Mason,  John,  Capt.,  306,  550. 

Massachusetts,  meaning  of,  14.  Origin  of  the 
Colony  of,  5,  309.  Design  of  the  plantation 
of,  6.  Horses  first  brought  to,  14.  First 
planters  of.  Nonconformists,  not  Sepa- 
ratists, 15,  299.  The  discovery  and  first 
planting  of  the,  19.  Capt.  John  Smith 
on  the,  19.  Wood's  description  of,  389- 
415. 

Bay,  first   explored  by  Capt. 

John  Smith,  19,  371.  Visaed  by  the  inhab- 
itants of  New  Plymouth;  Bradford  on,  19. 
Fishing  at,  22.  JSorthern  promontory  of, 
originally  called  Tragabizanda,  22.  Rec- 
ords of  the  Governor  and  Company  of,  37 
-  127,  128.  Officers  of  the  plantation  at, 
78.  Transfer  of  the  government  and  pa- 
tent of,  to  New-England,  85,  86,  87,  90,  91, 
97,  98,  176,  2S2  ;  resolved  upon,  88.  Trade 
of  the  plantation  of,  118.  'I'o  be  occupied; 
meaning  of,  150.  Cattle  in  the  plantation 
of,  245,261.  Town  laid  out  at,  259.  Wood's 
description  of  312,  392.     See  Endicott. 

Colonists,  Cotton's  farewell  ser- 


mon to  the,  126.  Bancroft's  slander  of  the, 
127.  Never  used  the  appeilalion  o{ Saint, 
138,  221,  424.  Set  sail,  under  Higginson, 
from  Gravesend,  217.  Bid  farewell  to 
F.ngland,  221.  See  land,  230.  Descry 
Cape  Sable,  231.  Cape  Ann  in  sight,  232. 
Arrive  in  Cape  Ann  harbour,  233.  Arrive 
in  the  harbour  of  Naumkeag,  234.  More 
expected,  2G0.  Transportation  expensive 
to  the,  262.  A  year's  provisions  to  be 
brought  by,  263.'  Necessaries  for,  264, 
266.  Chalmers's  assertions  with  regard  to 
the,  296.  Remove,  under  VVinthrop,  to 
Charlestown,  312,  373.  Settle  Boston,  313, 
381  ;  Medford,  313  ;  Waterlown,  313,  380  ; 
Dorchester,  314,  380;  Saugus,  314,  381; 
and  Roxliury,  314.  Mortality  among  the, 
314,  319,  325,  373,  379.  A  hundred  returu 
in  the  ships,  315.  Fasts  kept  by  the,  316. 
Two  hundred  die,  319.  Contemplate  a 
fortified  town,  320.  Send  Morton  prisoner 
to  England,  321.  Thanksgiving  kept  by 
the,  332,  385.  Sufier  from  famine,  351, 
379.  Charity  and  trust,  353  ;  and  content- 
edness,  of  the,  354.  Power  of  religion 
among  the,  355.  Settle  Newtown,  331. 
Scattered,  382.  Embark,  with  Richard 
Mather,  on  board  the  James,  at  anchor  in 
King  Road,  448,  449.  The  searchers  come 
on  hoard,  448  ;  Sir  F.  Gorges  visits  the 
ship,  451.  Set  sail,  452.  See  land,  470. 
Anchor  at  Richmond's  Island,  471.  Sail 
along  the  coast,  472.  Anchor  at  the  Isles 
of  Shoals  ;  arrive  in  Boston  harhour,  476. 
Colony,  supplies  for  the,  40,  42, 


43,  54,  56,  62,  63,  156,  266.  Seal  of  the, 
42,  155,  200.  Cattle  sent  over  to  the,  66, 
182,  190,  216,  310.  Form  of  government 
for  the,  73,  192  -196.  Richard  Andrews, 
a  benefactor  of  the,  31.  Charter  of  the, 
142,  149.  Ministers  for  the,  142,164.  Dis- 
cipline to  be  exercised   in  the,  158,  167. 


566 


INDEX. 


Shipwrights  sent  to  the,  IGl.  No  "idle 
drone  "  to  be  permitted  in  the,  188.  Jus- 
tice to  be  impartially  administered  in  the, 
188.  Swearers  to  be  punished,  189.  Pow- 
ers of  the  government  of  the,  196.  Oaths 
of  office  for  the  Governor  and  Council  of 
the,  201  -  203.  Better  provided  with  cattle 
than  the  Colony  of  New  Plymouth,  216. 
Alleged  innovations  in  the  government  of 
the,  290.  Mortality  in  the,  314.  Gard- 
iner's attempts  to  injure  the,  321,335.  Ed- 
mund Wilson,  a  bentfactor  of  the,  326. 
Magistrates   of  the,  3.56;    and   ministers, 

356,  357.     Morton's  attempts  to  injure  the 
302.     Letters  of  thanks  to  he  sent  to  t' 
benefactors  of  the,  415. 

Massachusetts  Company,  patent  of,  confirmed 
by  Charles  I.,  13,  372.  First  emigration 
under  the  authority  of  the,  13.  Second 
emigration  under  the  authority  of  the,  14. 
Condition  of  the  members  of  the,  14. 
Third  emigration  under  the  authority  of 
the,  15.  Their  patent,  60.  Meetings  of 
the,  in  London,  66,  68,  74,  78,  99.  Instruc- 
tions of  the,  to  Endicott,  68,  132,  138,  139, 
-191,  146,  153.  Officers  of  the,  chosen, 
70,  71,  105,  106.  Courts  of  Assistants  of 
the,  73,  76,  98,  107,  125,  127.  Letters  of 
the,  to  Endicott,  77,  78,  136  ;  to  Higginson, 
Skelton,  and  Endicott,  99,285-292.  Or- 
ders of  the,  77,  78.  General  Courts  of  the, 
in  London,  78,  79,  82,  86,  87,  88,  90,  94, 
101,109,113,119,  120,  192.  Accounts 
the,  to  be  audited,  81.  Chalmers's  asser' 
tions  with  regard  to  the,  39,  288.  Joint 
stock  of  the,  95,  98,  110,  113,  114,  116,  125. 
Chaplains  of  the  General  Court  of  the, 
chosen,  112.  Common  stock  of  the,  120, 
121,  125.  Agreement  of,  with  the  minis 
ters,  143,207-212,263.  Endeavour  to  pr  ^ 
vent  immoral  characters  from  going  to  their 
plantation,  189.  Careful  not  to  render  them- 
selves obnoxious  to  the  government  at 
home,  289,291.     See  Brereton. 

Massachusetts  Fields,  305,  395.  See  Mount 
Wnllaston. 

Mather,  Cotton,  Rev.,  142.  On  attempts  of 
the  English  to  settle  certain  parts  of  New- 
England,  6.  On  the  origin  and  signification 
of  the  name,  Naumkeag,  12.  On  Black- 
stone,  170.  Cited,  104,  221,  303,  318,  365, 
385,  419,  430,  448,  454,  553. 

Mather,  Increase,  Rev.,  10,  364. 

Mather,  Richard,  Rev.,  16,  260,  357,  419,422, 
438,  511.  Account  of,  and  of  his  family, 
480.  His  Journal,  445-480,  481.  At  Bris- 
tol;  goes  aboard  the  James,  448.  See 
Massach  usetis  Colonists. 

Mathewes,  Andrew,  53. 

Maud,  Daniel,  Rev.,  450,  451,  452,  4.54,  455, 
456,  460,  462,  403,  466,  468,  471,  479.  No- 
tice of  him,  449. 

Maverick,  John,  Rev.,  123,  260,  314,  347,  356, 

357,  380,  386.  Account  of  him,  348.  He 
removes  to  Dorchester,  380. 

Monmouth,  England,  noted  for  the  manufac- 
ture of  caps,  41 . 

Maverick,  Samuel,  150,305.  Account  of  him, 
322. 


Mayflower,  the,  39,  78, 107,  125, 154, 175, 184, 
186,216,217,242,249,261,  311.  Alleged 
treachery  of  the  captain  of  the,  4,  308.  No 
Pilgrim  returns  in  the,  315.  See  Jones,  and 
Peirce. 

May  hew, ,  161. 

Mayo, ,  62. 

Meare,  ,  220. 

Medford,  settlement  of,  313.  Described,  402. 
See  Misiick. 

Meech,  John,  375. 

Meetinghouse,  a  modern  term,  121. 

Merrimack,  described,  411. 

Meyrick,  Sir  Samuel  R.,  cited,  44. 
t'liantinomo,  555. 

Michell,  Barnard,  43. 

Michclson,  or  Michenson,  Edward,  notice  of, 
and  of  his  familv,  526. 

Milhurne, ,  83,  92. 

Mildmay,  Sir  Walter,  founder  of  Emmanuel 
College,  421,  504.  His  conversation  with 
Queen  Elizabeth,  421. 

Milk  Island,  22. 

Miller,  Sydrach,  47. 

Milton,  John,  cited,  127. 

Ministers,  42,  96,  134,  142,  148,  187,  205,  263. 
Letters  to  the,  99,  286-289.  Appointed  re- 
ferees, 120.  Of  the  Massachusetts  Colony, 
356,  357. 

Mistick,  plantation  at,  137,  313,  374,  402. 
Described,  404.     See  Medford. 

Mitchell,  Matthew,  456, 457, 460,  462,464,  465. 

Account  of  him,  454. 
rionanattuck,  sachem  of  the  Pequods,  548. 

Money,  raised,  80,  93,  110.     To  be  paid,  107. 

Monhegan,  fishing  at,  22.     Purchased  by  Aid- 
worth  and  Elbridge,  362.     The  James  ar- 
rives at,  470. 
onish,  Lieutenant,  358. 
'lontownmpate,  or  Sagamore  James,  307. 

Morell,  William,  Rev.,  394. 

Morley,  Robert,  53. 

Mortality,  of  the  Colonists,  319,  325,  378,  379. 
At  Charlestown,  314.  Causes  of  the,  325. 
In  England,  331,  500.     See  Indians. 

Morton,  Nathaniel,  Secretary,  on  the  treach- 
ery of  the  captain  of  the  Mayflower,  4.  His 
New-England's  Memorial, "287.  On  the 
great  storm,  478. 

Morton,  Thomas,  150,  151,  156.  The  first  to 
sell  guns  and  ammunition  to  the  Indians, 
83.  His  insinuation  respecting  the  physi- 
cian of  New  Plymouth,  131 .  Sent  prisoner 
to  England,  account  of  him,  321.  His 
attempts  to  injure  the  Colony,  362.  Cited, 
334. 

Morton's  Point,  in  Charlestown,  161. 

Mosquitoes,  255. 

Mott, ,204. 

Moulton,  Robert,  94,  ISO.  Account  of  him,  IGl. 

Mount  Wollaston,  83,  150,  156,  305,  309,  395. 
See  Q^idncy. 

Mountain,  Bishop  of  London,  516,  518. 

Moxon,  George,  Rev.,  233. 

N. 

Nahant,  description  of,  406. 

Nantasket,  393.     A  habitation  set  up  at,  19. 


INDEX. 


567 


Conant,  Lyford,  and  Oldham,  at,  20.    Roger ' 
Clap  arrives  at,  347.     See  Hull. 

Naumkeag,  25,  154,  258,  259.  Settlement  at, 
12.  Origin  and  signification  of  the  name, 
12.  Cattle  sent  to,  12,  216.  Conant,  Lyford, 
and  Oldham,  at,  20.  Reason  for  changmg 
the  name,  31.  Islands  in  the  harbour  of, 
234.     See  Salem. 

Neale,  Bishop,  527. 

Neponset,  Milton,  sachem  of,  305 .  See  Chick- 
atabot. 

Nevile,  Thomas,  420. 

Newbury.     See  Aferrimack. 

New-England,  settlement  in,  3.  Fishing  and 
fur  trade  on  the  north-eastern  coasts  of,  5, 
309.  Winslow's  Good  JNews  from,  5.  Stock 
raised  for  planting  a  colony  in,  and  at- 
tempts to  settle  certain  parts  of,  6.  Fish- 
ing voyage  to,  7.  Abortive  attempts  to 
plant  colonies  in,  21,  372.  Council  of,  sell 
land,  23.  The  Council  and  Government  in, 
67,  68,  77.  Letters  from,  94.  Wife  and 
children  of  Ames  come  over  to,  134.  Soil 
of,  243,  245.  Much  cleared  ground  in,  244. 
Natural  productions  of,  246-248.  Beasts 
of,  243.  Waters  of,  and  the  abundance  of 
sea-fish,  248-251.  Air  and  climate  of,  251, 
252.  Fowls  of,  252,  253.  Abundance  of 
fuel  in,  254.  Inconveniences  of,  254-256. 
Natives  of,  256-253.  Condition  of  the 
plantation  in,  253-259.  Fruitfulness  of, 
264  ;  healthfulness  of,  265.  General  con- 
siderations for  planting,  269-278.  Indians 
of,  305-307.  Encouragements  to  plant  in 
323.  Supposed  to  be  an  island,  391.  Di 
scription  of  the  bays,  havens,  and  inlets  in' 
391  ;  of  the  plantations  in,  394.  Unreason- 
able expectations  concerning,  412.  All 
must  work  in,  413.  Far  from  being  poor, 
414.  Cotton's  reasons  for  removing  to,  438  ; 
Shepard's,  529.  See  Indians,  and  Massa- 
chusetts. 

Newfoundland,  228,  465.     Fishing  at,  9,  184. 

Newman,  Samuel,  Rev.,  357. 

New  Plymouth,  settlement  at,  4.  Inhabit- 
ants of,  visit  Massachusetts  Bay,  19.  Suc- 
cess of  the  plantation  at,  21,  22.  Hewes's 
contest  with  the  people  of,  32.  Colony  of, 
not  so  well  provided  with  cattle  as  the 
Massachusetts  Colony,  216.  Colony  oL 
308.  See  Bradford,  Cape  Ann,  and  PllJ^ 
mouth.  fj. 

Newton,  Roger,  Rev.,  512.  " 

Newtown,  intended  for  a  city,  320.  Settle- 
ment of,  339,381.  Described,  402.  Har- 
vard College  founded  at,  551.  See  Cam- 
bridge- 

Norris,  Edward,  Rev.,  233,  357. 

Norton,  John,  captain,  333. 

Norton,  John,  Rev.,  151,  2?3,  340,  419,533, 
540.     Account  of  him,  537. 

Norton,  Thomas,  165. 

Nowell,  Increase,  47,  50,  51,  61,  65,  68,  69,  70, 
71,  72,  76,  77,  79,  81,  82,  36,  87,  90,  93,  94, 
99,  101,  106,  107,  109,  113,  114,  119,  120, 
125,  137,  174,  241,  232,  313,  316,  319,  356, 
378,  382,  387.  Notice  of,  and  of  his  fam- 
ily, 262. 

Nye,  Philip,  Rev.,  120.    Notice  of  him,  112. 


O. 

Oaths,  of  office,  for  the  Governor  and  Council 
of  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  69,  201  -203. 
Of  Allegiance  and  Supremacy,  260,  443. 

Obstructions  to  emigration,  260,  428,  448. 

Officers  of  the  Massachusetts  Company, 
chosen,  70,  71,  105, 106.     Names  of  the,  72. 

Offield,  Joseph,  70,  174. 

Oldham,  John,  51,  61,  69,  148,  150,217,321. 
At  Nantasket ;  Cape  Ann,  20.  JNotice  of 
him,  48.  His  patent,  69  ;  and  grant,  169. 
His  pretensions,  147.  To  be  guarded 
against,  149.  Account  of  him,  169.  Mur- 
dered by  the  Indians,  364,  549. 

Old  Planters,  how  treated  by  the  Massachu- 
setts Company,  145,  194. 

Oyster  banks,  401,  404. 

Oysters,  250. 


Palfrey,  John  G.,  27, 

Palfrey,  Peter,  106,  144.     Notice  of,  and  of 

his  family,  26. 
Palmer,  Abraham,  152,  174.     Notice  of  him, 

375. 
Palmer,  Walter,  375.     Notice  of  him,  377. 
Palsgrave,  Richard,  notice  of,  383. 
ParEEUS,  David,  112. 
Parret,  Sir  James,  456. 
Partisans,  44. 
Partridges,  253. 

assaconaway,  .307. 
Passengers,  transportation  of,  117. 
Patents,  13,  27,  28,  29,  33,  42,  51,  60,  69,  192, 

308,  372.     See  Charles  I.,  James  I.,  and 

Massachusetts. 

Peirce, ,  161. 

Peirce,  William,  Captain  of  the  Mayflower, 

33,   175,    184,    186,    311.      Captain    of  the 

Lion's  Whelp,   333,340.     Arrives  at  Nan- 
tasket, 330,  385.     Despatched  to  Ireland, 

for  provisions,  379. 
Pelham,  Herbert,  68,  79. 
Pemaquid,  a   plantation  at,  362,  471.     The 

Angel  Gabriel  cast  away  at,  478. 
Penn,  James,  notice  of  him.  383. 
Penn  William.     See  Penn,  James. 
|Penobscot,  attacked  by  the  French,  471. 
J'equot  war,  258,  363,   549.      Narratives   of 

the,  306. 
Perry,  Richard,  47,  70,  71,  72,  73,  79,  81,  82, 

86,  87,  88,  90,  97,  98,  101,   174. 
Peters,  Hugh,  69,  70,  174,  155,  353,  357,  511 

Account  of  him,  134. 
Philip's  War,  364. 
Phillips,  George,   Rev.,  298,  351,  356,   357, 

378,    330,    404.      Account    of   him,    299. 

Death  of  his  wife,  314. 
Phips,  Sir  William,  125. 
Pigeons,  253,  335. 
Pilgrim,    the,   78,    154,    175,    134,   216.     See 

Woliridge. 
Pilgrims.     See  Mayflower,  and  Plymouth. 
Piscataqua,  settlement  at,  21,  315.     Walford, 

the   smith,   removes   to,   374.      Nathaniel 

Eaton  goes  to,  551. 


568 


INDEX. 


Planters,  articles  of  agreement  between  the 
adventurers  and,  100,  102.  From  Dorset 
and  Somerset,  179.  Encouragements  to, 
323.     .See  Dorchester,  and   Western  men. 

Planter's  Plea,  2.  Authorship  of,  ascribed 
to  Kev.  John  White  ;  unknown  to  histori- 
ans ;  16.     ^ee  Humphrey. 

Plymouth,  settlers  of,  compared  with  those 
of  Massachusetts,  4.  The  first  cattle 
brought  to,  9,  21G.  Physician  at,  32.  Rem- 
nant of  the  Pilgrims  come  over  to,  216.  A 
fast  kept  at,  in  behalf  of  the  Massachu- 
setts colonists,  316.     Settlement  of,  372. 

—— Companj',   attempt   of  the,    to 

plant  a  colony  in  New-England,  21. 

Colony,  Allerton,  agent  of  the, 


333. 
Pococ'k,  John,   71,  72,  73,  79,  82,   86,  87,  88, 

98,  101.     Interested  in  the  Massachusetts 

Company,  4. 
Porpoise,  Cape,  472. 

Porpoises,  22fi,  229,  459,  461,  463,  464,  466. 
Pratt,  John,  the  surgeon,  103.    Notice  ofhim, 

52. 
Preston,  John,  Rev.,  422,  510,  515.     Account 

of  him,  506. 
Prince,  Thomas,  error  of,  49.      On  Bright, 

160.     On  Laud  and  Shepard,  520.     Cited, 

20,  56,   66,  70,  105,  153,  274,  237,  348,  376, 

337. 
Private  adventurers,  155. 
Proclamation,  to  prevent  the  sale  of  guns  an 

gunpowder,   42.      Of   James    I.,  83.     Of 

Charles  I.,  84,  157.     To  prevent  emigra- 
tion, 260. 
Protestants,  persecution  of,  in  the  Austrian 

territories,  274  ;  in  France,  274. 
Prudden,  Peter,  Rev.,  357. 
Pulislon,  Thomas,  68,  78,  79,  90,  101. 
Puritans.     See  Massachusetts. 
Pym,  John,  60,  298. 
Pynchon,  John,  283. 
Pynchon,  William,  69,  70,  71,  82,  86,  87,  88, 

90,  94,  97,  98,  99,   101,   106,  107,  109,  113, 

119,  120,  125,  232,  289,  314,  319,  378,  381. 

Account  of  liim,  283.     Death  of  his  wife, 

314. 


a. 


Quakers,  troubles  from  the,  361. 
Quincy,  settlement  at,  21.     ^ee.  Mount  Wo. 
laston. 


R. 


Randolph  Edward,  his  Narrative  of  the  state 
of  New-Ensland  cited,  359. 

RatclifT,  Philip,  notice  of,  361.  Punished, 
362. 

Rattlesnakes,  255. 

Revell,  John,  82,  83,  86,  90,  92,  94,  97,  98, 
101,  106,  107,  113,  116,  119,  120,  2S9.  In- 
terested in  the  Massachusetts  Company, 
4.  Returns  to  England,  315.  Notice  of 
him,  315. 

Rayner,  John,  Rev.,  151. 


Rhode  Island.     See  Aquethneck. 

Richardson,  Ezekiel,  333. 

Kichmond's  Island,  471. 

Rickman,  Isaac,  186. 

Roe,  Lawrence,  71. 

Rogers,  Daniel,   Rev.,  522.     Notice  of  him, 

521. 
Rogers,  Ezekiel,  Rev.,  357.    Account  of  him, 

522. 
Rogers,  Nathaniel,  Rev.,  357,  523. 
Rogers,  Richard,  Kev.,  503,  522. 
Rossiter,    Edward,   106,   123,  260,    314,  347, 

357.     His  death  ;  notice  of  him,  318. 
Roswell,  Sir  Henry,  29,  60,  92. 
Rolher-hoasts,  14. 
Kovell,  William,  109. 

Rowe, ,  87,  90,  101. 

Rowe,  Owen,  notice  of,  94. 

Roxbury,  settlement  of,  313,  381.     Alarm  at, 

340.     Described,  396. 
Ruggles,  Jeffrey,  319,  329. 
Ruggles,  John,  329. 
Rumney  Marsh,  407.     See  Chelsea. 
Russell,  John,  notice  of,  531. 
Ryall,  William,  163,  164. 


Sachems.     See  Sagamores. 

|Sagamores,  of  New-England,  305-307.  See 
Indians. 

Salem,  Naumkeag  so  called  by  Higginson, 
21.  The  first  child  horn  at,  24.  Kndicott 
at,  30.  Servants  sent  to;  sickness  at; 
mission  from,  to  Plymouth,  for  a  physician, 
32.  Higginson,  Skelton,  and  their  com- 
pany, arrive  at,  234,  235.  Church  formed 
at,  259.  Bradford  sends  to,  for  ammuni- 
tion, 377.  Described,  409.  See  Browne, 
Naumkeag,  and  New-England. 

Sales,  John,  333,  385. 

Salt,  monopoly  of,  47.  Persons  skilled  in 
making,  to  be  sent  to  New-England,  152. 
Abundance  of,  250. 

Saltonstall,  Sir  Richard,  29,51,  61,  65,  70,71, 
72,  73,  79,  81,  86,  87,  94,  97,  98,  99,  101, 
102,  105,  106,  107,  109,  113,  116,  119,  125, 
127,  155,  174,  179,282,239,298,  319,  338, 
356,  378,  330,  403.  Account  ofhim,  and  of 
his  family,  336. 
iarsaparilla,  133. 

feasakus,  sachem  of  the  Pequods,  548,  549. 

Sassafras,  133. 

Saturday  afternoon,  to  be  kept,  163.  Origin 
of  the  custom,  164. 

Saugus,  settlement  of,  314,  381.  Described, 
406.     Black  William,  Duke  of,  406. 

Savage,  James,  cited,  33,  113,  278. 

Scottow,  Joshua,  341.  On  the  origin  and  sig- 
nification of  the  name  Na'imkeag,  12.  His 
publications,  340.  Cited,  126,"  260,  383 
478,  540. 

Scusset  harbour,  in  Sandwich,  328. 

Seal,  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  42,  155, 
200,  325. 

Seale,  Humphry,  69,  71,  72,  124. 

Seale,  Robert,  70. 

Separatists,  15,221,288.     ^ez  Massachusetts. 


INDEX. 


569 


Sewall,  Stephen,  cited,  244. 

Sharpe,  Samuel,  43,  50,  51,  53,  59,  G7,  106, 
142,  144,  147,  155,  161,  163,  166,  178,  180, 
181,  182,  191,  194,  388.  Interested  in  the 
Massachusetts  Company,  4.  Agreement 
with,  50.  (^radock's  agent,  50,  157.  Ac- 
count of  him,  157. 

Sharpe,  Thomas,  86,  106,  126,  127,  282,  319, 
320,  336.  Death  of  his  daughter,  327. 
Notice  of  him,  338. 

Shaw,  Charles,  his  history  of  Boston,  cited 
397. 

Shepard,  John,  499,  500,  502. 

Shepard,  Samuel,  500,  532,  544.  Notice  of 
him,  541. 

Shepard,  Samuel,  son  of  Rev.  Thomas  Shep- 
ard, notice  of,  555. 

Shepard,  Thomas,  Rev.,  260,  340,  357,  438, 
512,  551.  His  autobiography,  497-558. 
His  parentage  and  family,  499,  500.  Sent 
to  school,  5Ul.  Death  of  his  father;  re- 
solves to  he  a  scholar,  502.  Enters  Em- 
manuel College,  503.  Hears  Doctor  Chad- 
derton,  504.  Becomes  dissipated,  505.  His 
skepticism,  507  ;  spiritual  temptations,  508  ; 
consciousness  of  sin,  509  ;  and  religious 
experience,  510.  Goes  to  live  with  Mr. 
Weld,  511.  Removes  to  Earls-Colne,  515. 
His  mode  of  preaching,  517.  Silenced  by 
Laud,  518.  Sees  the  sin  of  conformity, 
520.  Escapes  from  the  pursuivant,  522  ; 
leaves  Earls-Colne  for  Yorkshire,  523  ; 
narrowly  escapes  drowning,  524.  His  res- 
idence in  YorKshire,  525.  His  marriage, 
526.  Removes  to  Northumberland,  527. 
Preaches  about  Newcastle,  528.  His  first 
son  born,  529.  His  reasons  for  coming  to 
New-England,  529,  530.  Returns  to  Earls- 
Colne,  531.  Resolves  to  go  to  New-Eng- 
land, 532.  Sails  from  Harwich,  532,  A 
plot  to  apprehend  him,  533,  540.  The  ship 
driven  back  to  Yarmouth,  534.  He  lands 
at  Yarmouth,  539.  His  child  dies,  540. 
Spends  the  winter  in  Norfolk,  541.  His 
second  son  born,  542.  Sails  for  New- 
England,  543.  Arrives  at  Boston,  544. 
Settles  at  Cambridge;  his  wife  dies,  545. 
Marries  Hooker's  daughter,  554.  Two  of 
his  children  die,  555.  His  second  wife 
dies,  556;  her  character,  557.  Notice  of 
him,  his  family,  and  his  memoir,  558. 

Sherbourne,  Mrs.,  528,  542. 

Sherman,  William,  43. 

Ship-building,  in  the  Colony,  185,  404. 

Ships,  ballast  of  the,  39.  Stores  for  the,  45. 
Return  of,  from  New-England,  90,  107. 
Colonists  to  be  transported  in,  132.  Com- 
modities to  be  sent  to  England  in  the,  133, 

162.  Articles  sent  in  the.  156.  Tools  and 
materials  for  building,  ISO.  Names  of  the, 
215,  311. 

Shoes,  ordered,  46,  55,  63. 
Short,  Abraham,  notice  of,  362. 
Simpkins,  Captain  of  Boston  Castle,  358. 
Skelton,  Samuel,  Rev.,  30,  67,  135,  144,  147, 

163,  10!,  194,216,220,  290,  291.  Letters  to 
him  from  the  Company  in  England,  99,  287. 
Account  of  him,  142.  His  agreement  with 
the  Massachusetts  Company,  211,  212. 
Death  of  his  wife,  339. 

37 


Smelt  Brook  in  Roxbury,  396. 

Smith,  ■ ,  86. 

Smiih,  the  accomptant.  108. 

Smith,  Henry,  Captain,  283. 

Smith,  .Tohn,  457. 

Smith,  John,  Captain,   392.    Massachusetts 

Bay  first  explored  by  him,  19,  371.     Cited, 

33.     See  Massachusetts. 
Smith,  Ralph,  Rev.,  224.     Account  of  him, 

151. 
Snaphances,  44,  150. 
Soame,  Robert,  421. 
Soil,  of  New-England,  243  ;   its   wonderful 

fertility,  245. 
Somerset,  planters  from,  179.     See  Western 

men. 
Southampton,  situation  of,  125. 
Southcoat,  Thomas,  29. 
Southcot,  Richard,  notice  of,  349. 
Southcot,  William,  346. 
Spanish  dolphins,  464. 
Sparkc,  Michael,  241. 
Speedwell,  the,  125. 
Sprague,  Ralph,  31,  152,  349,  351,  375,  376, 

3S7.     Notice  of  him,  373. 
Sprague,  Richard,  31,  152,  349,  351,  375,  387. 

Notice  of  him,  373. 
Sprague,  William,  31,  152,  349,  351,  375,  387. 

Notice  of  him,  373. 

Spurstowe, ,  82,  86,  88,  97,  93,  101. 

Squeb,  Captain  of  the  Mary  and  John,  311, 

348,  350. 
Standish,  Miles,  4,  33,  34,  156,  321. 
Steevens,  Thomas,  54,  174. 

Stephens, ,  101. 

Stevens, ,  161. 

Stevenson,  John,  171. 

Stickline,  or  Stickland,  John,  375. 

Stock,  for  planting  a  colony  in  New  England, 

how   employed,  6.      Waste   of,  10.      See 

Common  and  Joint. 
Stone,  John,  Captain,  killed  by  the  Indians, 

363,  549. 
Stone,  Samuel,  Rev.,  260,  357,  512,  518,  528, 

545      Account  of  him,  506. 
Stony  Brook,  in  Roxbury,  396,  401. 
Storm,  great.  See  Massachusetts  and  Thacher. 
Stormy  Petrels,  462,  464. 
Stoughton,  Israel,  306. 
Stoughton,  William,  cited,  189. 
Stowers,  Nicholas,  375. 
Straitsmouth  Island,  22. 
Street,  Nicholas,  Rev.,  357. 
Style,  old  and  new,  133,  304. 
Success,  the,  311,  330. 
Sun-fish,  227. 

Sydney,  Algernon,  his  motto,  155. 
Synod,  at  Cambridge,  360,  547  ;  result  of  the, 

548. 


Talbot,  the,  39,  45,  90,  92,  107,  108,  127,  143, 
147,  153,  154,  162,  163,  166,  172,  176,  215, 
216,  217,  233,  287,  310.  See  Beecher  and 
Graves. 

Taylor,  Captain  of  the  James,  450,  460. 

Teiihills  farm,  105,  404. 

Ten-pound  Island,  234. 

Thacher,  Anthony,  478.     His  Narrative  of 


570 


INDEX. 


bis  Shipwreck,  483-494.  His  children, 
493.     Account  of,  and  of  his  family,  494. 

Thacher  family,  494,  595. 

Thacher's  Island,  22,  233,  494. 

Thanksgiving,  332,  385. 

Thomson,  David,  150,  322.  His  colony,  21, 
315.    Sent  over  by  Gorges  and  Mason,  315. 

Thursday  Lecture,  origin,  and  account,  of  the, 
425. 

Tilley,  John,  an  overseer  at  Cape  Ann,  24. 
Murdered  by  the  Indians,  364. 

Tilly,  Hugh,  179. 

Tobacco,  136,  146.  Not  to  be  planted,  182. 
Account  of,  182. 

Tomson,  William,  Rev.,  357. 

Touteville,  Margaret,  525,  526.  Her  age, 
525.     See  Shepard. 

Tragabizanda.     See  Massachusetts. 

Transporiaiion,  of  passengers,  117.  Expen- 
sive, 202. 

Trask,  William,  notice  of,  31. 

Trumbull,  Jonathan,  cited,  124,  350. 

Tuckney,  Anthony,  Rev.,  425,  430,  436. 
Notice  of  him,  438. 

TulTneale,  Richard,  174. 

Turt.ot,  250. 

Turkeys,  253. 

Turner, ,  106. 

Turtle,  223. 


Waller,  ■ 


%. 


U. 


'Uncas,  555. 

Underbill,  John,  Capt.,  306. 

Undertakers,   proposed.   111.     Chosen,   116. 

'i'heir  liabilities,  321. 
Upham,  Charles  W.,  his  life  of  Hugh  Peters, 

and  of  Sir  Henry  Vane,  135. 


Vane,  Sir  Henry,  195,  337,  546,  548.     Inter- 
cedes for  Pynchon,  263. 

Vassall, ,  47,  53,  59,  69,  70,  97,  119. 

Vassall,    Samuel,    60,    71,    72,   82,   87,   98. 

Notice  of,  and  of  his  family,  89. 
Vassall,  William,  65,  71,  72,  77,  78,  86,  87, 

89,    94,    9S,    99,    101,    106,    127,   232,    289. 

Returns  to  England  with  his  family,  316. 

Account  of  him,  316. 
Venn,  John,  51,  53,  50,  65,  71,  72,  78,  79,  81, 

86,  87,  90,  94,  97,  98,  99,  101,  102,  106,  109, 

119,  174.     Notice  of  him,  60. 
Vincent,  P.,  306. 
Vine-planters,  to  be  sent  to  New  England, 

42,  152. 
Virginia,  intention  to   plant  in,  3.      Indian 

massacre  in,  136. 


W. 

Wales,  Nathaniel,  notice  of,  and  of  his  fam- 
ily, 450. 

Walford,  Thomas,  the  smith,  at  Charles- 
town,  150,  152,  349,  375.  Removes  to 
Piscataqua,  374.     Notice  of  him,  374. 

Walgrave, ,  68,  79. 


-,  53,  76,  79,  81,  87,  90,  97,101, 
109,  119,  123. 
Warburion,  Bishop,  on  Laud,  426. 
Ward,  John,  Rev.,  112,  521. 
Ward,  JNathaniel,  Rev.,  521.     Notice  of  him, 
112. 

Ward,  Samuel,  Rev.,  521.     Notice  of  him, 

426. 
Warham,  John,  Rev.,  123,  260,  312,  314,  346, 
356,  357.     Account  of  him,  347.     Removes 
to  Windsor,  Conn.,  347.     At  Dorchester, 
3S0. 

Warwick,  Sir  Robert,  a  friend  of  the  New- 
England  colonies,  92. 

Washburn,  John,  Secretary  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Company,  39,  51,  55,  71,  72,  90,  94, 
12S. 

Waterman,  Richard,  account  of  him,  161. 

Watortown,  settlement  of,  313,  380.  Origin 
of  the  name,  313,  314.  Roger  Clap  at, 
349.     Described,  403. 

Way,  George,  174. 

Way,  Henry,  notice  of,  330. 

Webb,  Francis,  69,  78,  82,  84,  87,  101,  114, 
174,  179,  269.     Notice  of  him,  179. 

Weeks,  (ieorge,  354. 

Weld,  Thomas,  Rev.,  135,  356,  357,  513,  522, 
428.  Account  of  him,  and  of  his  family, 
511.     Arrested  by  order  of  Laud,  521. 

Welden,  Robert,  332. 

Wells,  Doctor,  177. 

Wessagusset.    See  Weymouth. 

West  Nicholas,  282. 

Western  men,  123,  179,  260.  Settle  Dorches- 
ter, 314,  380.  Keep  a  day  of  fasting  in  the 
^e^  Hospital  at  Plymouth;  Mr.  White 
preaches  to  them,  347.  Sail  from  Ply- 
mouth, 347.  Arrive  at  Nantasket  and 
Charlestown,  348.  At  Watertown  349. 
Remove  to  Dorchester,  350.  See  Clap, 
Maverick,  and  Warhain. 

W^eston,  Thomas,  his  colony,  21,  308. 

Weymouth,  Weston's  colony  at,  21,  394. 
Gorges'scolony  at,2l,  169,394.  Seven  In- 
dians killed  at,  305.  Plantation  at,  de- 
scribed, 394. 

Whale,  the,  311,  330. 

Whales,  465,  469. 

Wharton,  Mr.,  Rev.,  521. 

Wheelright,  John,  Rev.,  161,  547,  548. 

Whetcomb,  Simon,  29,  47,  51,  53,  59,  60,  61, 
65,  70,  71,  72,  73,  74,  77,  79,  81,  82,  83,  86, 
87.  m,  89,  90,  92,  93,  94,  97,  98,  174,  186, 
187,  289. 

Whitcbcot,  Benjamin,  Rev.,  138. 

Whichcote,  Charles,  70,  76,  94,  174, 

White,  Kdmund,  79,  81. 

White  John,  65. 

White,  John,  Rev.,  4,  51,69,  74,76,  86,90, 
99,  101,  102,  109,  HI,  112,  114,  135,174, 
179,  347.  His  Brief  Relation,  1.  High 
authority  of  his  Narrative,  3.  Probably 
one  of  the  adventurers,  7.  On  the  origin 
and  signification  of  the  name  Naumkeag, 
12.  Imposed  upon,  respecting  Lyford  and 
Oldham,  20.  Notice  of  him,  26.  Author- 
ship of  the  Humble  Address  ascribed  to 
him,  299. 

White,  John,  the  counsellor,  13,  70,  76,  100, 
102.     Clarendon  on,  99. 


INDEX. 


571 


White,  Raphe,  40,  64. 

While,  Richard,  81. 

Wbiliiig,  Samuel,  Rev.,  48,  357,  381,  419, 
429,  439.  Notice  of  him,  and  of  his  fam- 
il)-,  430. 

Wigiiall,  John,  333. 

Wildfowl,  in  New-England,  252. 

Willett,  Thomas,  notice  of,  475. 

Williams,  John,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  422.  No- 
tice of  him,  426.  Cotton's  letter  to  him, 
434. 

Williams,  Roger,  135,161.  Comes  over  in, 
the  Lion's  Whelp,  330.  L 

Wilson,  Edmund,  518.  A  benefactor  of  the- 
MassachusetlsColon5',  326.  His  Lecture- 
ship, 513. 

Wilson,  John,  Rev.,  306,  313,  316,  340,  351, 
356,  357,  365,  378,  379,  381,  523,  543.  Ac- 
count of  him,  and  of  his  family,  325. 

Wilson,  John,  Rev.,  of  Medfield,  512. 

Wilson,  Lambert,  to  instruct  in  Surgery,  165. 

Winnissimet,  plantation  at,  described,  404. 
See  Chelsea. 

Winslow,  Edward,  4.  His  Good  News  from 
New-K.ngland,  5.  The  first  cattle  brought 
to  Plymouth  by  him,  9,  216.  Sent  on  a 
mission  to  England,  511.     See  Bradford. 

Winlhrop,  Henry,  319. 

Winthrop,  John,  Gov.,  14,  29,  85,  90,  94,  97. 
98,  99,  101,  102,  103,  107,  103,  109,  110,  113, 
116,  120,  125,  126,  127,  137,  185,  282,  239, 
298,  304,  307,  313,  316,  339,  356,  375,  387. 
On  Pratt,  the  surgeon,  52.  Account  of, 
and  of  his  family,  104.  Governor  of  the 
Massachusetts  Company,  105.  His  plant- 
ation at  Tenhills,  105,  404.  Conant's  Island 
granted  to  him,  105.  On  Humphrey,  106. 
Sails  from  England,  127,  310.  On  Hugh 
Peters  ;  Burleigh  ;  135.  The  Humble  Re- 
quest of,  and  his  Company,  293-299.     On 


Phillips,  299.  His  fleet,  311.  On  Vassall, 
316;  Johnson,  318.  Letter  to,  from  his 
■wife,  cited,  326.  Arrives  at  Charlestown, 
350,  378.  On  Boston  Castle,  359.  Re- 
moves to  Boston,  3S1.  On  Hooker,  512; 
Harlakenden,517  ;  Laud, 518;  Rogers, 523. 

Winlhrop,  John,  Jr.,  97,  135,  264,  307.  Ja- 
cie's  letter  to,  cited,  522.     Cited,  277. 

Wise,  John,  55. 

Wollaston,  Captain,  his  colony,  21,  309. 

WoUridge,  William,  master  of  the  Pilgrim, 

BVonohaquaham,  or  Sagamore  John,  306. 

'Wood,  Anthony,  error  of,  97. 

Wood,  William,  his  description  of  Massa- 
chusetts, 389-415.  Error  of,  397.  Notice 
of  him,  415.  Cited,  137,  244,  248,  254,  305, 
312. 

Woodburj-,  John,  26,  144,  264.  Sent  to  Eng- 
land, to  procure  necessaries,  28.  Notice 
of,  and  of  his  family,  28.  His  return  from 
England,  31. 

Woodgale, ,  82,  90,  101,  109. 

Woodward,  James,  338. 

Works,  public.     See  Churches. 

Wright,  Nathaniel,  47,  50,  51,  53,  64,  71,  72, 
81,  82,  S3,  84,  86,  87,  88,  90,  91,  92,  93,  94, 
97,  99,  101,  102,  106,  107,  109,  113,  116,  119, 
120,  123,  126. 

Wright,  Robert,  apprehended,  332  ;  and  sent 
prisoner  to  England,  333. 
Wynche, ,  90. 


Y. 

Yorkshire  men,  in  New  England,  523. 
Young,  James,  94,  97,  116. 
Young,  Richard,  174. 
Young,  Sir  John,  29. 


THE  END. 


LITTLE   AND   BROWN   HAVE   FOR   SALE, 

Chronicles  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  the  Colony  of  New 
Plymouth,  in  New-England,  from  1602  to  1625.  Now  first  col- 
lected from  Original  Records  and  Contemporaneous  Printed  Docu- 
ments, and  illustrated  with  Notes.  By  Alexander  Young.  Second 
Edition. 


1 


